Iraqi Army Closes Qayyara Bridge to Prevent Oil Smuggling by Shi段te Militia


Due to oil smuggling from Qayyara fields, southern Nineveh province, by the Shi段te Arab militias of Hashd al-Shaabi, the Iraqi army closed Qayyara floating bridge.

A security source from Nineveh police said on Thursday that Qayyara floating bridge has been closed for seven days, and may remain closed for another four days, causing movement difficulties for the residents of the region.

The reason behind the closure of the bridge is tensions between the Iraqi army troops controlling the bridge and the Shi段te militias of Imam Ali Brigade because of the latter's control of oil wells in the region and selling the crude oil through illegal means, Captain Zakaria Shawkat from Nineveh police told BasNews.

He noted 典his prompted one of the officers to remove one of the pieces of the bridge under the pretext of maintenance to block the way of the tank trucks coming to and from the oil wells in Qayyarah.

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Moreover, the residents of Qayara called on the local and federal governments to soon open the bridge to lift the burden of having to take difficult alternative routes to travel.Qayyara town, located 45 km south of Mosul, was taken by the Islamic State militants following the fall of Mosul into the group's grip in mid-2014.

The Iraqi army and US-led coalition liberated the district on August 24, 2016. The town has large fields of oil, containing dozens of wells, some of which the IS militants set on fire upon retreating from the town
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