Saboteurs blow up Iraqi pipeline

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Saboteurs blew up a key northern oil pipeline Wednesday, forcing a 10 percent cut on the national power grid as demand for electricity rises with the advent of Iraq's broiling summer heat.

Meanwhile, gunfire rang out Wednesday night in the Shiite holy city of Najaf for the first time since an agreement last week to end weeks of bloody fighting between American soldiers and militiamen loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Residents said gunmen attacked a police station near the city's Revolution of 1920 Square, and it appeared American troops were not involved.

Clashes persisted Wednesday around Fallujah, a rebellious Sunni Muslim city west of Baghdad.

Four members of an Iraqi force in charge of the city since April were wounded when a mortar round exploded. 1st Lt. Amer Jassim speculated the attackers were firing at Americans but missed.

The pipeline blast near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, was the latest in a series of attacks by insurgents against infrastructure targets, possibly to shake public confidence as a new Iraqi government prepares to take power June 30.

The attack on the pipeline -- which carries fuel to the Beiji power station, one of Iraq's largest -- forced a 10 percent cutback in the country's 4,000-megawatt production, Assem Jihad, an Oil Ministry spokesman, told Dow Jones Newswires.

The U.S.-run coalition had made its ability to guarantee adequate electricity supplies a benchmark of success in restoring normalcy to Iraq. However, sabotage and frayed infrastructure have impeded efforts to eliminate power outages, especially in the capital.

More than a year after the occupation began, power cuts are common nationwide, in some places topping 16 hours a day. Demand is rising with the advent of summer, with temperatures already topping 100 degrees.

Elsewhere, Polish authorities said an explosion that killed six European soldiers -- two Poles, three Slovaks and one Latvian -- south of Baghdad on Tuesday was caused by a mortar attack rather than an accident as first reported.

Gen. Piotr Czerwinski, the head of a special investigating commission, said he suspected that Saddam Hussein loyalists were responsible for the deaths -- the first in Iraq for the small Slovak and Latvian contingents.

U.S. and other multinational forces will remain in Iraq after the new government takes power at the end of the month under terms of a resolution approved unanimously Tuesday by the U.N. Security Council.

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi described the vote as a victory for Iraq because it declares an end to the military presence when a constitutionally elected government takes power in 2006 -- or before, if the Iraqi government requests it.

"The resolution is very clear that once Iraq stands on its feet, then we would ask the multinational forces to leave Iraq," Allawi said. "This is ... an entirely a government issue."

In Rome, three Italians returned home Wednesday, a day after they and a Polish hostage were freed by coalition forces. Kidnappers had held the Italians for two months.

"We're home, we're home," shouted Maurizio Agliana, a towering, burly man who gave the thumbs-up sign after embracing his sister on the tarmac of Ciampino airport.

Foreign Ministry official Alessandro Cevese said the hostages were not beaten but had been made to sleep on the floor, and were twice held for several days in a bathroom measuring 6.5 feet by 6.5 feet.

One of the hostages, Salvatore Stefio, challenged a captor who ordered him to take off his wedding band, declaring: "Well, then shoot me," Cevese said. Stefio was eventually forced to give up the ring.

The men did not know that a fourth hostage abducted with them, Fabrizio Quattrocchi, had been executed, Cevese said.

Quattrocchi may have been killed "because he was identified as someone close to the American structure, since he had a pass released by the CPA," the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority that governs Iraq.

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the senior U.S. officer in Iraq, said the men were freed south of Baghdad. However, Premier Silvio Berlusconi said they were found in Ramadi, a hotbed of the Sunni Muslim insurgency 75 miles west of Baghdad.

At the G-8 summit in Sea Island, Ga., President Bush said he envisions a wider role for NATO in the volatile country. Fifteen NATO countries have troops in Iraq.

"We believe NATO ought to be involved," Bush said. "We will work with our NATO friends to at least continue the role that now exists, and hopefully expand it somewhat."

Last year, NATO took over the 6,400-strong international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.

In other developments:

-- A group holding two hostages -- a Turk and an Egyptian -- threatened to kill the captives after Friday prayers unless their home governments condemn U.S. actions in Iraq. The threat was made in a statement distributed in Fallujah.

-- Insurgents attacked a Baghdad city council member Tuesday, wounding him and killing two of his bodyguards, the military said.