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Oil, Water Pipelines Bombed in Iraq

Aired August 18, 2003 - 11:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In Iraq today, apparent sabotage has set back coalition efforts to rebuild that country's infrastructure. Two pipelines were attacked, one of which carried water, the other one oil.
Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf has the details. She joins us now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: The water situation isn't quite as dire as first believed. About 300,000 people were without water in this huge city of four million people. And today, it seems that a few more are getting their water back.

It still leaves a large part of the neighborhood that's serviced by that huge water main without water. They have been trying to buy drinking water, but there also apparently is starting to be a shortage of that.

Now, there are aid organizations that are in there trying to get that water main repaired. This isn't a lake that you're seeing. This is actually a pool of water from that flooded water main in the street.

Now, that, as you mentioned, was sabotage. Residents say they heard a loud explosion very early in the morning. The next thing they knew there was water gushing out of that pipe.

Now, they hope to have that repaired sooner than the oil pipeline running to Turkey is going to be repaired. That is a major job. That, again, was sabotage with an explosion on that 600-mile pipeline. You can see those huge fires burning as the oil burns off, and it has cut exports.

Now, that pipeline had just recently been reactivated. It is the only export pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, through which a lot of Iraq's exports from the northern oil fields go.

Now, it will take at least several days to get the oil pipeline repaired, and in the meantime, officials say that Iraq is losing about $7 million a day in lost revenue.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.





Aired August 18, 2003 - 11:18   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In Iraq today, apparent sabotage has set back coalition efforts to rebuild that country's infrastructure. Two pipelines were attacked, one of which carried water, the other one oil.
Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf has the details. She joins us now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: The water situation isn't quite as dire as first believed. About 300,000 people were without water in this huge city of four million people. And today, it seems that a few more are getting their water back.

It still leaves a large part of the neighborhood that's serviced by that huge water main without water. They have been trying to buy drinking water, but there also apparently is starting to be a shortage of that.

Now, there are aid organizations that are in there trying to get that water main repaired. This isn't a lake that you're seeing. This is actually a pool of water from that flooded water main in the street.

Now, that, as you mentioned, was sabotage. Residents say they heard a loud explosion very early in the morning. The next thing they knew there was water gushing out of that pipe.

Now, they hope to have that repaired sooner than the oil pipeline running to Turkey is going to be repaired. That is a major job. That, again, was sabotage with an explosion on that 600-mile pipeline. You can see those huge fires burning as the oil burns off, and it has cut exports.

Now, that pipeline had just recently been reactivated. It is the only export pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, through which a lot of Iraq's exports from the northern oil fields go.

Now, it will take at least several days to get the oil pipeline repaired, and in the meantime, officials say that Iraq is losing about $7 million a day in lost revenue.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.