IRAQ Soldiers respond to fire at pipeline

The Basra airport will be opened by the end of the month, Iraqi officials said.
TAJI, Iraq (AP) -- Flames shot 200 feet into the air from a burst oil pipeline north of Baghdad today, and U.S. forces fired warning shots to keep people from approaching the scene.
Two M-1 Abrams tanks and three soldiers crouched in firing positions ordered an Associated Press reporter and photographer to stay back from the blaze near Taji, a region of date groves, military compounds and chemical plants. Before the war, U.N. weapons inspectors were in the area almost daily.
An Iraqi firetruck also was forced to stay back. "They were very hostile," said fire department Lt. Hasannein Mohammed.
The blaze was burning about three miles north of a big refinery. It erupted in a grove of date palms less than 100 yards from a highway, sending a huge black cloud drifting south over the capital for several hours this afternoon.
Military spokeswoman Nicole Thompson said there was a pipeline fire but had no further details.
It could not immediately be determined if the fire was the work of saboteurs, but many pipelines throughout the oil-rich nation have been hit by guerrillas seeking to destabilize U.S. efforts to pacify Iraq.
Also, Iraq's interim government announced plans Monday to reopen Basra airport by the end of the month and has already authorized planned flights by at least six foreign carriers.
Raid
Elsewhere, guerrillas wounded three American soldiers in northern Iraq on Monday, and a U.S. raid on a remote village near the Iranian border failed to capture a top fugitive suspected of plotting attacks on coalition forces.
Monday's raid in Ain Lalin, 60 miles northeast of Baghdad had sought a former member of Saddam Hussein's regime on the U.S. list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Mark Young said. He said 70 suspects were taken into custody.
International commercial flights to and from Iraq have been suspended since the 1991 Gulf War. Ibrahim al-Jaafari, current president of the U.S.-picked Governing Council, said Monday the resumption of commercial flights would be "a big step forward to opening Iraq to the world."
Al-Jaafari, serving as council president during August, also said the appointment of Cabinet ministers has been postponed by three weeks. He said a 25-member committee has been formed to look into how to proceed with selecting a constitutional assembly. The members include judges, academicians and lawyers and reflects Iraq's ethnic and religious groups.
Reopening airports
During the 12 years of United Nations sanctions, only Royal Jordanian had been flying to Baghdad with U.N. approval.
U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer had said he hoped to get both Baghdad and Basra airports reopened by mid-September, and predicted last week that Basra would be secured and operational before Baghdad International Airport. The Baghdad airport has seen at least three failed surface-to-air missile attacks on military flights since U.S. forces took control of the capital April 9.
In Sweden, Scandinavian Airlines System said today it hoped to resume at least two flights a week to Basra, Iraq's second largest city.
SAS, the joint carrier of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, sought permission from the U.S.-backed civilian administration overseeing Iraq earlier this year to resume the flights. The Iraqi Governing Council said it approved the application.
Lennart Svantemark, an SAS vice president, told The Associated Press the start of service depended on "the security situation" in Basra.
Al-Jaafari said other carriers include Gulf Air -- owned by Bahrain, Oman and Abu Dhabi -- Royal Jordanian, Emirates, Qatar Airways and the Polish flag carrier LOT.
In central Baghdad, two grenades were thrown from a car at a U.S. military checkpoint; soldiers returned fire, killing one Iraqi, witnesses said.