Iraqi oil union: U.S. troops shot engineer

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- Iraq’s oil workers in the south are protesting an alleged killing of a field engineer en route to work by U.S. troops, a top union official said.

“They treated him as if he was an animal, they shot at him and kept on moving,” Faleh Abood Umara, general secretary of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, told United Press International.

Umara was working at the Rumaila field Sept. 17 when he heard a gunshot. He turned and found his colleague, “I saw the troops passing and a car being shot at.” He died two days later from a head wound, Umara said.

The IFOU held a rally at the Southern Oil Company headquarters in Basra Thursday, according to a union statement, which identified the worker killed as Chief Engineer Talib Naji Abboud.

"The attack in the oil fields seems also to be designed to push the Iraqi government to take further harsh and repressive measures against the oil workers at a time when they are resisting the privatization of the industry," the statement said.

“He was in his government vehicle going to work in the field and was shot by U.S. troops,” Umara said. “We had a widespread funeral ceremony for him where we wrapped the coffin in an Iraqi flag because we consider him a martyr.”

He said the unions are protesting this action but have not begun to strike. The IFOU demands the Iraqi government “interfere to end this behavior” and the U.S. government hold responsible the troops involved as well as compensate the family. They also want U.S. troops to be kept away from the oil sector.

Umara said there has been no response from either government.

“It looks like the Iraqi government is on the U.S. side that even the minister of oil didn’t condemn or send us any letter or a message of sympathy for the incident,” Umara said. “And as a result we are going to continue demonstrating until we hear something.”

The unions have stopped work before, most recently in June over unmet demands to the Iraqi government on improved working conditions. They also want influence in the drafting of the controversial oil law, which they claim will lead to foreign/private firms having too much access to the longtime nationalized oil sector.

“We are against carrying weapons. We want to do things and solve problems in a peaceful way,” Umara said. “We are more likely going to hold a strike and stop working. Meetings are continuing to decide the next step.”

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Ben Lando, UPI Energy Editor, and Hiba Dawood, UPI Correspondent