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Blasts Rip Mexican Gas, Oil Lines

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The Associated Press

Published: September 11, 2007

VERACRUZ, Mexico - A shadowy leftist rebel group claimed responsibility for six explosions that affected a dozen Mexican gas and oil pipelines Monday, sending flames towering into the sky and forcing the evacuation of thousands.

Financial markets in the United States and Mexico were rattled by Monday's blasts, which officials said cost hundreds of millions of dollars in lost production. Some local factories were forced to shut down after natural gas supplies were cut but there were no immediate reports of injuries caused by the explosions and fires.

It was the second time in three months that the so-called People's Revolutionary Army has claimed to have targeted pipelines as part of what it has labeled its 'prolonged people's war' against 'the anti-people government.'

The group, known as the EPR, is an extremely secretive, tiny rebel group that staged several armed attacks on government and police installations in southern Mexico in the 1990s. It was later weakened by internal divisions, leaving it unclear which splinter group carried out the attacks.

The six explosions affected a dozen natural gas pipelines and one oil pipeline in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, said Jesus Reyes Heroles, the head of Mexico's oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, without providing specifics. The explosions occurred in valve stations where different pipelines intersect.

The blasts triggered fires that shot flames and plumes of black smoke high into the sky and could be felt miles away.

In another incident, a truck carrying ammonium nitrate to a mine caught fire after a highway crash and blew up, killing at least 34 people and injuring some 150, state and federal officials reported.

Authorities said two trucks smashed into each other Sunday night on a busy highway in northern Mexico near Piedras Negras.

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