Scoop Images Confirm Iraqi Oil Fields Alight

Friday, 21 March 2003, 2:36 pm
Article: Alastair Thompson

According to an unconfirmed report from Associated Press quoting Fox News, fires southwest of the city of Basra have been burning for several hours.

The Fox network in turn attribute their information to unidentified senior US military officials. The reports have been denied by Iraqi officials while Iranian officials say the oil fields were not sabotaged by the Iraqis, but rather bombed by coalition forces.

See…
- AP Report - Two Iraqi oil wells on fire
- Iraqi Denial - Iraq denies oil wells on fire

On the basis of the unconfirmed report, oil prices have reversed their recent declines. Meanwhile the following image appears to confirm the report.

Taken by the NASA Modis land imaging satellite programme, the image system is designed to identify fires and mark them with red squares. As can be seen in this image there are at least two and possibly four fires identified.

Moreover, as the following location map shows, the location of the fires is - as reported by Fox News - South West of the Iraqi city of Basra, denoted as "Al Basrah" on this map.

LOCATION MAP SHOWING WHERE BASRA IS

CLICK FOR BIG VERSION

For more images showing the context of the above image see… Scoop Images: Kuwait And Iraq Satellite Images.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

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