Iranian troops crossed into Iraqi territory and seized an oil well that lies in a disputed area along the two countries’ southern border, Iraq’s deputy foreign minister said yesterday.
The official, Mohammed Haj Mahmoud, said Iranian troops seized oil well No. 4 Thursday in the Fakkah oil field, in Maysan Province about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad. The oil field is one of Iraq’s largest.
Oil prices rose slightly after news of the incident spread.
The incursion by armed Iranians provided a dramatic display of the simmering border tensions between two nations, which have nonetheless grown close in recent years after a Shi’ite-led government rose to power in Iraq following the 2003 US-led invasion.
Iraq’s national security council held an emergency meeting late yesterday. The Fakkah field is considered a shared field between Iran and Iraq, meaning both nations are able to pump oil from it, but the Iraqis consider oil well No. 4 theirs
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