Promising jobs, Basra appeases protesters at key commercial sites

BASRA - Basra government officials have negotiated temporary solutions to disperse two groups of protesters who had been blocking access to Iraq's largest oil field and its only deep-water port.

From Aug. 17 to 19, protests in North Rumaila closed down a main road leading to the Rumaila oil field, which produces more than one-third of the country's oil. On Friday at Umm Qasr port, local residents began blocking the only road leading into the facility, threatening to bring commerce there to a halt and stop the transit of goods to much of Iraq.