Two oil wells in Iraq burn after explosions attributed to Daesh
Two oil wells located in the small Khabaz field, in the southwest of Iraq's Kirkuk province, caught fire on Wednesday after two explosions in that location attributed to the Jihadist group Daesh, security sources informed Efe.
Hussein al-Obeidi, lieutenant colonel of the police in the northern province of Kirkuk, told Efe that the Jihadist group detonated two explosive devices in two of the wells in the Khabaz oil field, an attack that caused "a great fire" in both wells and which the authorities are attempting to put out.
The fire-fighting teams of the Iraqi state company North Oil Company (NOC), which manages this field, have managed to control the fire, an engineer from the company who asked not to be identified told Efe.
The source did not specify whether production in this field had been interrupted by the attack, and said the Khabaz oil field wells were producing between 20,000 and 25,000 barrels of oil per day. So far, no group has claimed the action.
Attacks on energy installations in Iraq are usually claimed by Daesh, who has detonated explosive devices against electric towers and oil pipelines in recent months.
In October, a pipeline connecting the autonomous region of Kurdistan in the north of Iraq with the Turkish port of Ceyhan was the target of an attack that led to the temporary suspension of oil exports, as announced at that time by the Kurdish regional government.
At the end of November, Daesh also claimed a Katiusha rocket attack on a refinery in the city Al-Siniya in the central province of Saladin.
Daesh occupied large parts of Iraq and almost reached the gates of Baghdad in 2014, but three years later he was defeated territorially after a long offensive by Iraqi forces and an international coalition led by the United States. Nonetheless, the attacks by the Jihadist group continue practically daily against members of the security forces and civilians in different areas of the country. The recent attacks come at a time when the White House announced the withdrawal of 500 US soldiers, bringing the number of US soldiers still in Iraq to some 2,500.
