KUWAIT CITY March 24 —
Fighting around the southern Iraq oil fields that U.S.-led forces
had previously thought were secure has driven out civilian
firefighters trying to put out the oil well blazes, the top
firefighter said Monday.
"It's not nearly as safe as they said it was," said Brian Krause,
vice president and senior blowout specialist for Houston-based Boots
and Coots. "We're kind of sitting ducks out there."
The Iraqi resistance in the oil fields challenges U.S. claims
that southern Iraq is quickly falling under allied control.
U.S. Marines declared the southern Rumailah oil fields in Iraq
unsafe for journalists to visit Monday, forcing the cancellation of
a trip under Marine escort intended to give the media a first-hand
view of the blazing wells.
Krause said that he had been told that Iraqi fighters dressed as
civilians had clashed with British forces near the oil fields Sunday
night, killing two British troops and forcing the evacuation of his
firefighting team.
Lynn Wray, a spokeswoman for the British military, said that she
could not confirm the fighting or location but said that two British
soldiers were missing in southern Iraq.
U.S. military officials said that armed Iraqis in civilian
clothes, some of them possibly using women and children as screens,
were operating in the southern Rumailah area.
Krause was meeting with U.S. military officials Monday in Kuwait
to discuss tighter security arrangements so his men can pursue the
dangerous work of putting out the fires.
Securing the Rumailah oil fields was one of the top priorities of
commanders of the invasion into Iraq; military planners want to use
Iraq's oil output to finance he rebuilding of the country.
British forces initially secured the area with nearly all of the
key infrastructure intact.
Krause said that putting out the fires appears to be a
straightforward job, easier than extinguishing 700 well fires set by
Iraqi forces fleeing Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War.
"I don't see them as too difficult," Krause said. "The biggest
challenge now is getting in enough water and security."
Krause worked for the legendary oil firefighter Red Adair and was
involved in the seven-month effort to douse Kuwait's fires in
1991.
Company experts surveyed the region by air Saturday and said that
the biggest difficulty would be getting enough water to put out the
fires in the desert. In 1991, fires at many of Kuwait's wells were
doused by pumping water from the Persian Gulf.
photo credit
and caption:
A U.S. soldier from the 1st
Marine Expeditionary Force stands guard at a burning oil well
at the Rumeila Oil fields March 23, 2003 in Iraq. Several oil
wells have been set ablaze by retreating Iraqi troops in the
Rumeila area, the second largest offshore oil field in the
country, near the Kuwaiti border. (AP Photo/Ian
Waldie/Pool)
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