Gunmen attack Chinese oil installations in southern Iraq

Unidentified gunmen have destroyed a power station feeding the Ahdab oil field which a Chinese firm is developing.

The attack is the first on Ahdad for the development of which the China National Petroleum Corporation had signed a $3 billion contract with Iraq in 2008.

The Chinese had only started operations in earnest last month and the attack is a blow to their plans to develop the field situated in the border Province of Wasit southeast of Baghdad.

Iraqis provide security for the Chinese workers and their equipment and the Chinese are also reported to have brought with them their own security team.

A provincial official, refusing to be named said: