December 20-2013
In a roadside massacre, Iraqi gunmen mowed down and killed 15 Iranians building a pipeline to bring Iranian gas to Iraqi electricity generating plants.
The gunmen also killed three Iraqis and wounded five Iranians and two Iraqis in the shooting Friday, which was presumed aimed at the Iranians.
One of the wounded Iranians said the killers pulled up to the worksite in three cars, stepped out and began shooting everyone working on the pipeline without saying a word.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. But the assumption was that Sunni militants, who have been killing multitudes of Iraqi Shias, decided to attack an Iranian target.
The site was in Diyala province, which borders Iran, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) northeast of Baghdad.
On Tuesday, four days after the killings, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced that the gunmen had been arrested. He didn’t identify them or even say how many had been arrested, however.
Last summer, Iraq said the pipeline was due to be finished in June but was delayed by the deteriorating security situation in Diyala province. Iran said in July that the pipeline would be finished in September and gas deliveries would begin then. But a few weeks ago, Iran said the gas deliveries would not begin until next May.
After the mass murder Friday, Ali-Reza Gharibi of Iran’s Gas Engineering and Development Co. insisted the bloodshed would not disrupt gas exports.
Iranian pilgrims have frequently been targeted by Sunni killers in Iraq. They travel in easily identified buses that are regularly bombed or gather in groups outside Shia shrines where they are easily targeted. This was believed to be the first attack on a group of Iranians not related to pilgrimages.
