Shia Parties Battle for Control of Oil-Rich Basra Region

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Source: UPI

Political parties and their militias are fighting for power over the Basra government, the oil sector it controls, and the oil and fuels smuggling that bring in extra funds.

The southern area, where much of Iraq's oil wealth is located and nearly all its oil exports are sent to market, has been under the purview of British troops, who have allowed various factions to become the power base and their armed outfits to flourish.

Now the British are leaving, and the intra-Shiite fighting that bloodied the streets and complicated provincial politics will explode. Even if U.S. troops, already stretched thin, are sent to mediate, the situation will likely not be calmed -- it will likely be inflamed.

"It's fundamentally related to the battle over oil," said Reidar Visser, editor of the Iraq Web site historiae.org and an Iraq expert at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. "It's understandable, of course, given the size of the Basra reserves."

Read more: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/60124/

[thunder rising]

1. but ... it's our oil.

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2. Yeah, the Dickster is going to be upset. nt

[yava]

3. claims to Basra's oil not limited to Shia

Doesn't Kuweit also claim Basra's offshore oil reserves?
Kuweit is part of the Golf Cooperation Council, created to block iranian ambitions.
If Iraq falls into iran's sphere, the front will shift!

[yava]

4. another claim

how forgetful! iran also claims that shoreline where they picked the 15 Brits off a boat. Also 350,000 barrels/day are piped from Basra to the other side of the river to Iran.
The frontier with Kuweit is the place where the "mother" of all wars was started by Sadam after a nod from secretart Madame Albright.
Militarily, controlling the Basra shoreline on the persian gulf is something equivalent to controlling the frontier of southern Lebanon but it is also where iran and iraq meet kuweit and can be a nice place to start a sunni war of liberation if its in the wrong hands.
It looks like the civil war MUST continue.
Sad for iraqi children (50,000 plus of whom having lost all family, are working as slaves in the Gulf Cooperation countries that include kuweit and saudi)