Al Qaida believed responsible for rocket attack on Baghdad refinery
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 E-Mail this story Free Headline Alerts
BAGHDAD Ñ Al Qaida was believed to have resumed attacks on Iraq's energy sector.
Suspected Al Qaida gunners fired a Katyusha rocket toward an oil refinery in Baghdad. The rocket was said to have struck the refinery in the city's southern Dura district on March 14.
This marked the first rocket attack on Iraq's oil sector in years. Most Al Qaida attacks on Iraqi energy assets had taken place in the north of the country, particularly near the city of Kirkuk.
The Katyusha attack sparked a fire at the Dura refinery. Authorities extinguished the fire but damage was reported.
Officials said Al Qaida appears to have launched an offensive in the Baghdad area in an effort to undermine the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki. Over a three-day period in March, at least 60 people, many of them soldiers and police officers, were killed in suicide bombings in the Iraqi capital.
Al Qaida has also sustained attacks in the northern city of Mosul. On March 14, Sunni insurgents shot dead an off-duty woman police officer in Mosul's market.