Major oil pipeline in N Iraq bombed

Bomb blasts have halted the flow of crude oil from Iraq’s major pipeline to neighboring Turkey amid a surge in violence across the Arab country.

According to an official from the North oil Company on Thursday, unknown militants bombed a section of the pipeline carrying Iraqi crude oil from the Salaheddin province to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

Attacks on Iraq’s northern pipelines are not uncommon. In November last year, bomb attacks on an oil pipeline in the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh halted the oil flow to Ceyhan.

Meanwhile, Iraq has seen a surge in violence since the beginning of 2013.

On Thursday, at least 13 people were killed after a bomber detonated an explosive-laden car near the Iraqi city of Baquba.

According to Iraqi officials, the blast took place near car dealerships in the village of Baladruz.

Some 25 people were also injured in the blast, the officials added.

Iraq’s Interior Ministry has said that militants have launched an open war in Iraq and they want to push the Middle Eastern country into chaos.

“The country is currently facing an open war from bloodthirsty sectarian forces that aim to plunge the country into chaos,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement issued on July 30, 2013.

The United Nations says at least 8,000 people have lost their lives in Iraq in 2013.