Bombers Attack Basra Oil Pipeline

One of southern Iraq's two main oil export pipelines has been severely damaged in a bomb attack, officials said today.

The bombing of the pipeline, seven miles south of Basra, came as clashes between Iraqi security forces and Shia fighters in the port city entered a third day.

"This morning, saboteurs blew up the pipeline transporting crude from [the] Zubair 1 [oil plant] by placing bombs beneath it," an oil company official said.

"Crude exports will be greatly affected because this is one of two main pipelines transporting crude to the southern terminals. We will lose about a third of crude exported through Basra."

The official said it would take three days to repair the damage if security could be provided for workers.

Iraq exported 1.54 million barrels of crude per day from Basra in February.

Today, regular explosions could be heard in the city as security forces continued a crackdown on Shia factions including Mahdi Army fighters loyal to the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Authorities imposed curfews across southern Iraq in an attempt to halt the spread of violence.S

Yesterday, the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, gave Shia militia and other gunmen a 72-hour deadline to surrender their weapons.

As the US-protected Green Zone in Baghdad came under renewed attack from rockets and mortars, US officials insisted members of the Mahdi Army were not being singled out in the Basra crackdown.

They blamed Iranian-backed rogue militia elements for the violence in Basra and Baghdad, in which more than 100 people have been killed, according to Iraqi officials and news agency reports.

British commanders told the Guardian that "renegade groups" and criminal gangs were responsible for the violence.

The 4,100 British troops based at Basra airport are not taking part in the crackdown, although Iraqi helicopters have been refueled at the airport.

Sadr was reported to have called for talks to end the fighting between government forces and his followers.

A senior aide, Luwaa Sumaisem, told Reuters that the truce the cleric had agreed last August was still in place.

Today, Sadr's followers again took to the streets to demonstrate against Maliki's government, forcing schools, universities and shops to close, news agencies said.

Shia militia have also been fighting US and Iraqi forces in the Shia Baghdad neighborhoods of al-Baiyaa, Shaab and Kazimiyah, as well as Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad.

Hundreds of Sadr supporters were reported to have taken to the streets yesterday in Baghdad and Kerbala, demanding that the government stop military operations in Basra and withdraw all security forces.

Police said at least 10 people, including a baby girl, were killed and 31 wounded in clashes in Kut, 105 miles south of Baghdad.