IRAQ: The chairman of the US joint Chiefs of Staff has said the capture of Saddam Hussein has led to the arrest of "more than several hundred" Iraqis, including some leaders of the insurgency.
Appearing on the Fox News Sunday programme, Gen Richard Myers also said Saddam was not cooperating with US authorities who have been interrogating him since he was caught on December 13th near his hometown of Tikrit.
"We've put our best interrogators on him. The only word I have is that he is not being cooperative," Myers said of the interrogation effort, which is being run by officials outside of the US Defence Department.
Meanwhile, Iraq's desperate fuel shortage became more desperate over the weekend when saboteurs fired rocket-propelled grenades which set alight petrol storage tanks near the Dora refinery in south Baghdad.
Some 9.9 million litres of petrol were consumed in a fire which blazed for hours on Saturday while thousands of motorists sat in lines four and five kilometres long at pumps in all of Iraq's cities and towns.
The strike on the tank farm coincided with attacks on pipelines, indicating that the insurgents are conducting a coordinated campaign on the fuel front. A holed pipeline in the Mashahda region, 25 kilometres north of Baghdad, caused a massive leakage of oil products while four pipelines carrying crude located between Iraq's largest power plant at Beji and Mosul, 400 kilometres north of Baghdad, were also set ablaze.
On December 18th, the oil ministry reduced the petrol ration from 50 to 30 litres as US forces clamped down on blackmarketeers who sell petrol for more than 50 times the official price of $ 0.01 per litre.
It was reported that cars with odd and even license plate numbers would be served on alternate days and that customers will have to present identity papers to purchase their ration.
Last week 28 petrol tankers were impounded and their drivers detained for selling their loads directly to motorists or to blackmarket dealers.
Petrol stations must be guarded by armed Iraqi police or US troops in armoured vehicles to prevent violent confrontations among exasperated drivers. (Additional reporting Reuters)