Iranian forces cross into Iraq, seize oil well
"There has been no violence related to this incident and we trust this will be resolved through peaceful diplomacy between the governments of Iraq and Iran," a US military spokesman told AFP at Contingency Operating Base Adder, just outside the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.
"The oil field is in a disputed territory between the Iranian and Iraqi border forts," he said.
An official of the Iraqi state-owned South Oil Company in the city of Amara west of the field said: "Iranian forces arrived at the field early in the morning (Friday). They took control of Well 4 and raised the Iranian flag even though the well lies in Iraqi territory."
Iraqi Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Ali Al-Khafaji, reversing earlier denials, said the incursion was the latest in a series this week at the Fakka oil field, 300 km southeast of Baghdad, in Maysan province.
There was no official word from Tehran on the incident. Oil prices rose after Al Arabiya television first reported an incursion.
The benchmark US light crude oil future moved to a high of $74.69 per barrel at 1414 GMT, up from $73.31 at 1108 GMT before the first reports.
The incident came a few days after the Iraqi Oil Ministry awarded leading global energy firms contracts to operate seven oil fields, in the second tender since the 2003 US invasion; Kazinform cites Arab News. See www.arabnews.com for full version.