Monday, December 10, 2007

McClatchy and Reuters report a bogus "rocket attack"***UPDATED, SCROLL FOR UPDATES***12/12 MILITARY SAYS "INDIRECT FIRE NOT RULED OUT***

12/12 update: scroll to bottom for more info from MNF-Iraq. Military says they can't rule out indirect fire.

McClatchy is reporting a rocket attack on a Baghdad refinery.


Around 6,00 am, gunmen launched Katyosha rocket targeting Doura refinery south Baghdad sparking a big fire. A big smoke cloud covered the area. A source in the ministry of oil who talked on condition of anonymity said that the fire fighters team would control the fire and put it off in the few coming hours.


Reuters reported the attack on the refinery, too:


A rocket attack sparked a big fire at a domestic oil refinery in southern Baghdad on Monday but the plant was still operating, Iraqi police and officials said.


So did the BBC.

Only one problem - the refinery fire was accidental. Multi-National Force - Iraq has the news. Even Al Jazeera makes an effort to get the story straight. "But when troops arrived on the scene its cause was determined to be the result of pipe explosion".

UPDATE 4:52: Thanks to Gateway Pundit for the link! As of now Reuters and McClatchy are still reporting the bogus info about rocket attacks on the refinery. Embarassing that Al Jazeera is getting it right, and Reuters and McClatchy are wrong. Here is Al Jazeera's corrected report.

UPDATE 12/12: I received an email update from MNF-I last night indicating indirect fire may have been involved. "We haven't ruled out indirect fire as a potential cause of the initial damage, but efforts to reduce the fire negated our ability to conduct a definitive crater analysis to determine beyond a doubt that it was indirect fire that caused the damage to the site." My newest post on the 12/10 refinery fire is here.