Tikrti, Aug 17: A ferocious blaze raged for a third day at a giant oil pipeline in northern Iraq, and US military officials today said it was too soon to say what triggered the fire. Earlier, Iraqi police officials blamed saboteurs. The Danish Army reported one of its soldier died after being shot during a gun battle with armed Iraqis whose truck had been stopped during a routine patrol near Basra in southern Iraq.

The soldier was the first Dane to be killed in Iraq since Denmark sent a contingent of about 400 soldiers this summer to join the stabilisation force in the Basra region.

Two Iraqis were killed in the shootout yesterday, one was wounded and six were arrested, the Danish Army command said in Copenhagen.

In northern Baghdad overnight a big water main was hit by an explosion, flooding streets and cutting supplies to a part of the city.
Witnesses said they saw two men on the motorbike leaving a bag of explosives and detonating it minutes later in the early hours today.

L Paul Bremer, the US civilian administrator of Iraq, said the country was losing $7 million daily with the oil export pipeline out of operation.
The new Iraqi police commander had vowed yesterday to pursue the "conspirators" behind the attack that halted oil exports to turkey only days after they resumed, cutting off vital income for an economy in shambles.

Bureau Report