At least 26 people died and 59 were injured in attacks across war-torn Iraq, while suspected militants detonated an explosive device planted on an oil pipeline which runs from the Kirkuk oilfields to the Bayji refineries, authorities informed Tuesday.

A section of the main line and an adjacent pipeline were damaged by the explosion, which sparked a fierce fire. Authorities said the fire did not spread and cause further damage, but a huge oil leak appeared and thick smoke covered the area.

Specialists said the incident will certainly force refineries in Bayji to cease their operations until the reparations to the pipeline are complete and the oil flow can be resumed.

The refineries are located in northern Iraq, some 130 miles north of Baghdad, and are supplying more than half of the country’s petroleum products.

The damaged section is near the Tigris river and oil leaked into the river, causing damage to downstream water stations, most of them being closed on Tuesday. As a consequence, water supply was disrupted in numerous areas south of the blast site.

Several fires erupted along the river’s banks after the attack occurred, an official from the civil defence department of Salah ad Din province.

Meanwhile, two car bombs went off in central Baghdad near a government building, police said. At least eleven people died and 30 were injured when the explosion swept through the parking lot.

A short period after the two blasts, another car bomb exploded in the eastern Zayouna neighbourhood, taking two lives and injuring two persons.

A civilian was killed and two others wounded when a blast occurred near a police patrol in the southern outskirts of Baghdad.
Sixty kilometres north of Iraq’s capital, in Baquba, three people died and two suffered injuries when gunmen opened fire on their vehicle, police sources reported.

In the same town, the capital of Diyala province, another person was killed and three members of the Baquba Salvation Front were injured when mortar shells landed near them.

It is believed that militants targeted the front’s members, as the recently-formed organization is fighting against al-Qaeda fighters in the province.

A powerful explosion killed two Iraqis and wounded thirteen in a small city in north-eastern Iraq, officials said.

In other developments, Saddam Hussein’s hometown, Tikrit, was the site of fierce clashes between militants and policemen. Three people were killed and at least two injured in the fire exchange, as security sources imposed a curfew in the town 170 kilometres north of Baghdad.

On Tuesday, the US military said coalition and Iraqi forces detained a leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, two gunmen and a dozen alleged terrorists during operations in northern Baghdad.

The terrorist organization is believed to be planning attacks in the region and is behind several car bomb attacks.

“The cell is further suspected of storing and supplying weapons such as surface-to-air missiles, mortar rounds, mortar launchers, and heavy machine-guns to be used in future terrorist attacks,” a statement of the US army said.