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The Baiji refinery produces millions of gallons a day Iraq's largest oil refinery has been shut down following death threats to tanker drivers, jeopardising supplies of electricity across northern Iraq.
The threats followed a steep rise in the price of petrol earlier this month, ordered by the government. The oil ministry said the shutdown at Baiji was costing $20m (£12m) a day.
The
ministry said it hoped the refinery, which has been out of action since
the weekend, would be back up and running within days.
"Efforts are being made to convince the drivers to return to work," a spokesman said.
Oil
distribution has been further disrupted by storms that have prevented
exports being shipped from the Basra terminal in the south, Reuters
said.
Although
billions of dollars have been spent on infrastructure since Saddam
Hussein's regime was toppled, fuel and electricity production have not
reached the levels maintained before the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Raid on house
Elsewhere
in Iraq, about 12 Shia Muslims were killed by insurgents after
apparently failing to heed warnings that they should move out of their
homes in the mainly Sunni town of Latifiya, about 30km (20 miles) south
of Baghdad, officials said.
The victims were reported to be members of the same extended family.
However
there were differing reports of the incident and who was involved. "A
number of gunmen broke into three houses in Latifiya at dawn on
Thursday, took 12 males aged between 20 to 40 and put them into a
minivan owned by one of the victims, and machine-gunned them," Iraqi
Army Capt Ibrahim Abdullah told Associated Press.
The AFP news agency said 14 people were killed, some of them women.
Reuters said the killings took place inside a house, where intruders slit the throats of 11 men and women.
Threat to Sudan
Also
on Thursday, a suicide bomber killed four police officers and wounded
five at a checkpoint near the interior ministry in Baghdad, officials
said.
Iraqi police seal off a street in Baghdad after a bomb killed four colleagues.
The
attacker was dressed in a police uniform and blew himself up as police
cars were entering the ministry, a police source said.
Meanwhile, a web statement attributed to the militant group al-Qaeda in Iraq said it was holding five Sudanese hostages.
The group said it had "arrested five employees of the Sudanese embassy in Baghdad, including diplomats".
It
said the Sudanese government had "48 hours to clearly announce it is
breaking off diplomatic relations with the [Iraqi] government...
Otherwise the government must assume responsibility for sacrificing its
diplomats".
At the weekend Sudan said six of its nationals, including five embassy employees and a "friend", had been abducted in Iraq.
Source: BBC
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