Two suicide car bombs explode on highway near oilfields in southern Iraq

Fri May 19, 2017 | 3:58pm EDT Two suicide car bombers blew themselves up at checkpoints on a highway near oilfields in the southern Iraqi province of Basra on Friday, killing several people, police sources and an interior ministry spokesman said. Iraq's South Oil Company said there was no disruption to operations but oil police were put on maximum alert in response to the attack, officials said. Bomb attacks in southern Iraq, where the bulk of the country's oil is produced, are relatively rare. The victims included two soldiers, a traffic policeman and an unknown number of civilians traveling in a bus. The first blast took place at the Rumeila checkpoint and the second around one km away at another checkpoint called al-Sadra, an interior ministry spokesman said. Bombers intercepted near Basra oil fields After encountering heightened security on the outskirts of Basra, near the Rumaila oil field, two suicide attackers blew up their car bombs. Emergency responders deliver victims of a suicide car bomb attack to al-Zubair Hospital on May 19, 2017. (STAFF/Iraq Oil Report) By Ali al-Aqily, Jassim al-Jabiri and Staff of Iraq Oil Report Published Saturday, May 20th, 2017 Twin car bomb attacks struck northern Basra province near the Rumaila and Ratawi oil fields Friday, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens.Multiple federal, provincial and oil sector security officials said intelligence services had been looking for the would-be attackers since Thursday, following a tip that car bomb attacks were imminent."We had intelligence from detained terrorists indicating that Basra would be targeted with car bombs," said Jabbar al-Saadi, the head of the...