U.S. Troops Under Fire, Pipeline Sabotaged

"The attackers ran away and then came back to open fire with Kalashnikovs and pistols on the American soldiers," he added.

The attack, which began at 7:00 am (0300 GMT), and the subsequent gun battle lasted about 90 minutes, in the village of Albu Alwan, seven kilometer west of Fallujah, said Majid Ibrahim Allawi, adding that three Iraqi men were arrested.

"I was arrested for two hours by American forces and I saw 12 (U.S.) soldiers on the ground.

"They were driven in the direction of camp al-Habani," a former base of the Iraqi army now used by U.S .occupation forces.

Al-Jazeera channel reported, quoting eyewitnesses, that a number of American soldiers were killed and wounded in the double attack.

Fallujah, 50 kilometers west of Baghdad, is the scene of frequent attacks on the occupation forces in Iraq and relations in the town have been strained since U.S. troops shot dead at least 16 demonstrators in April.

Polish Force Attacked

Meanwhile, a base housing Polish troops in Iraq came under mortar fire overnight but there were no casualties or damage, the Polish Defense Ministry said Friday, adding that U.S. special forces had tried but failed to capture the attackers.

The ministry said a total of five mortar shells were fired in the early hours at a logistics base in the town of Hilla, near Baghdad, but all of them fell at the edge of the facility.

"Our men were immediately evacuated to a shelter, while U.S. special forces and gendarmes set off to chase the assailants," said ministry spokesman Eugeniusz Mleczak, adding the attackers had escaped.

The attack was the first reported against Polish troops in Iraq, where some 300 military personnel are working to prepare for the deployment of a multinational division under Polish command.

Pipeline Afire

A gas pipeline supplying a key Baghdad power station was on fire Friday near the northern Iraqi refinery town of Baiji after a sabotage attack overnight, reported an AFP correspondent on the scene.

"It is an attack, a sabotage," a high-ranking Baiji police officer, who did not want to be identified, told AFP.

"It could be the Fedayeen (militia), or supporters of the old regime, or criminals," he added.

"It was a gas pipeline going from Kirkuk to Tadji" power station, an engineer in Baiji told AFP on condition of anonymity.

U.S. military helicopters were seen hovering over the fire four kilometers west of Baiji, site of strategic pipelines in Iraq’s massive oil and gas sector.

Witnesses said they heard an explosion Thursday night near Baiji, some 200 kilometers north of Baghdad.

"Last night after 8:00 pm (1600 GMT) prayers we heard one loud explosion here," said Ali Jassan near Baiji.

Sabotage and looting have plagued the oil and gas sectors, with pipelines suffering crippling damage, while just 150 of 700 oil wells are in working order, officials have said.

Iraq’s oil reserves, the second largest in the world, are estimated at 112 billion barrels, while its gas reserves are the world’s 10th largest, according to the U.S.-led occupation.

While the fire was on a gas line, the incident heightens concerns over Iraq’s capability to maintain safety and security in its lucrative oil industry.

The U.S. occupation authority is banking on sales of 3.4 billion dollars this year, which would supply half the six-billion-dollar state budget it announced earlier in the month.

Baiji is part of the so-called Sunni triangle known for its support of ousted president Saddam Hussein.

Only a day earlier, U.S. officials hailed the expected reopening early this month of the country’s main oil pipeline from the petroleum centre of Kirkuk to the Turkish Mediterranean terminal of Ceyhan, wrecked in a post-war sabotage attack.