Two US soldiers late Saturday were killed and five others injured during suicide bomb attacks on an oil rig and two tankers in southern Iraq. Three speedboats, manned by suicide bombers, detonated near Basra's offshore oil terminal.
It was the first suicide bombing attack against Iraq's vital oil facility.
The first blast came when an occupation warship patrolling the Gulf sighted a small boat near the oil platform. The warship sent a team to the boat, but when they boarded it, the vessel exploded.
The other boats detonated alongside two oil tankers near the Abbott oil facility south of Iraq's main port, Umm Qasr.
A spokeswoman for the US Navy's Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet said in a statement that the "Coalition" boarding team were killed and wounded as a result of the attacks.
No damage was caused to the oil rig.
Officials at Iraq's Southern Oil Company said the terminal had been shut down with all personnel evacuated. (Albawaba.com)
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