ABU DHABI Ñ The United States has succeeded in extinguishing all but
one oil burning well in southern Iraq.
U.S. officials said an oil well fire was extinguished in the giant
Rumeila oil field on Monday. This leaves one oil well still burning.
Last month, Iraqi forces torched 10 oil wells, seven of them in Rumeila.
U.S. and Kuwaiti personnel were summoned to control the blazes and ensure
that more well would not be sabotaged.
"There now remains one burning oil well in the southern oil fields,"
Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, deputy operations director for U.S. Central
Command, said on Monday.
Brooks said coalition forces are in control of 900 of the 940 oil fields
south of Baghdad.