Mortar attack ignites huge fire at North Oil Co. refinery in Kirkuk fields

A U.S. soldier stands guard at the refinery

BAGHDAD, Iraq: A mortar attack ignited a huge fire Monday night at an oil facility near Kirkuk, site of some of Iraq's richest crude deposits, an official at the North Oil Co. reported.

The official said two mortar rounds hit a pipeline filtering facility 25 kilometers (15 miles) northwest of Kirkuk at 6:30 p.m., shutting down the flow of crude to the massive Beiji refinery to the southwest.

The fire was burning out of control and could take hours or longer to extinguish, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

He said the flow of oil from all of Kirkuk's rich fields had been shut down as well.

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