IRAQ

Swissinfo: Iraqi thieves queue up to plunder pipelines
ZUBAYR, Iraq (Reuters) - Riding a ramshackle donkey cart through the desert wastes of southern Iraq, 15-year-old
Abdullah and his nine-year-old brother Mohammed have taken up a lucrative but deadly trade -- stealing petrol from
pipelines.
Evading British military patrols and gangs of rival looters, they tap into the rusting pipelines running through the desert
from Basra's decrepit refinery, siphoning off petrol that they sell on the black market to feed their family.
In the ruined industrial wasteland south of Basra, among lakes of leaked oil and the skeletons of factories stripped bare
by looters, locals have discovered an emergency valve in a high-pressure pipeline where they can steal as much petrol as
they want -- as long as the British don't catch them.
"We are Iraqis and this is our oil," said Abdullah, a thin teenager in a grubby grey robe. "Why shouldn't we take it? We
have more right to it than foreigners. And we need to eat."