Nigerian militants step up 'oil war'

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LAGOS, Sept 20 (AFP): Nigeria's main armed militant group Saturday said it had destroyed a major pipeline run by Royal Dutch Shell in the sixth such attack in the past week as it vowed to paralyse the key oil sector.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the main group fighting for a greater share of southern Nigeria's oil wealth for local people, said the attack took place Friday on a "major pipeline" in Rivers state.
It said the pipeline was located at Buguma Front in the Asari Toru region and was the latest target of the "oil war" it launched Sunday and has nicknamed "Hurricane Barbarossa."
"The military and the government of Nigeria whose unprovoked attack on our position prompted this oil war are no match for a guerrilla insurgency of this kind," it said.
The MEND Saturday vowed to "continue to nibble every day at the oil infrastructure in Nigeria until the oil exports reach zero."
Earlier in the week, Shell confirmed the first attack on its Alakiri flow station and a second on the Greater Port Harcourt Swamp Line, both Monday.
As the week went on it became progressively more tight-lipped, neither confirming or denying claims of attacks on its Orubiri flow station, Rumuekpe pipeline and another pipeline at the Elem-Kalabari Cawthorne Channel axis in Rivers state.
Chevron meanwhile has confirmed two "shooting incidents" near its facilities whilst saying it has no reason to believe it was specifically targeted in either attack.