More evidence Russia tried to bomb oil pipeline

Scotsman:

RUSSIAN planes dropped bombs this month within 50 metres of a pipeline that British oil company BP was in the process of reopening through Georgia, according to witnesses.

Residents yesterday showed deep craters alongside the pipeline, which runs between Azerbaijan's capital Baku, on the Caspian Sea, and Georgia's Black Sea port of Supsa.

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"They started dropping the bombs at seven o'clock in the evening of the 11th," said Adam Zaridze, 26, a herdsman. "In one day they dropped 42 bombs," he said. "They were black planes … The cattle ran all over the place. Some of the cattle were killed." A woman suffered a fatal heart attack from fear, he said.

Next to a marker post above the underground pipeline, 15 miles from the border with Azerbaijan, three craters were visible within 50m of it. The largest was about 3m deep and 8m in diameter.

A line of craters could be seen running perpendicular to the pipeline for more than a mile. Cattle were grazing beside a churned-up area larger than a football pitch with two large craters in the middle.

Pipelines through Georgia, bringing oil and gas westwards from the Caspian Sea, are strategically important as they bypass Russia and help reduce western energy dependence on Moscow. The European Union relies on Russia for about a quarter of its gas and much of its oil.

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The pipelines were of little strategic or tactical importance in Russia's war over South Ossetia. They would be of strategic importance if Russia was bent on the conquest of Georgia and in making economic war against the Europeans who depend on these pipelines.