A British military artillery strike targeting militants set an oil pipeline ablaze for several hours Saturday in southern Iraq, but no civilian casualties were reported, The Associated Press quoted officials as saying. British troops launched the artillery fire just before 1 p.m. against gunmen attacking the main military base in Basra with mortars or rockets after determining no civilians were likely to be in the industrial area, British military spokesman Maj. Matthew Bird said. The British military compound in Basra, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, faces mortar and rocket attacks daily. «As a result of that a fire did break out in what we believe to be a disused oil facility,» Bird said, blaming the huge plume of black smoke on residual oil. Civil defense teams were dispatched to the area and there were no reports of civilian casualties, Bird said, adding he had no immediate information about whether any gunmen had been hit. The local director of the oil pipeline protection forces, Ayad Ismail, said the pipeline was used to store fuel but the fire had been extinguished and exports had not been affected.
