Fearing that the strike could interrupt petroleum operations, the Government sent soldiers and police officers to guard refineries and pipelines.

A1 U.S. Weighs Security Options The Pentagon is considering a plan to transfer the responsibility for guarding pipelines, government buildings and other sites in Iraq to an American-trained, private Iraqi security force, military officials said.

The Pentagon is considering a plan to train a private Iraqi security force and make it responsible for guarding pipelines, government buildings and hundreds of other sites in Iraq, military officials said today.

Ferried into the country on American military transports, 180 Mongolian Army soldiers - all male, all volunteers - are guarding pipelines and working on construction projects under a Polish command.

In Iraq, the Pentagon is considering a plan to train private Iraqi security force to guard pipelines, government buildings and other sites.

One, the Facilities Protection Service, which guards pipelines and other infrastructure in Iraq, mushroomed from 4,000 men in 2003 to more than 140,000 today, and is now spread among more than a dozen ministries.

If the initial phase is successful, he said, it will be expanded so that 15,000 new troops will guard pipelines across northern Iraq, all the way south to Baghdad and north to the Turkish border.

He "informed a NATO conference that 'NATO troops have to guard pipelines that transport oil and gas that is directed for the West,' and more generally to protect sea routes used by tankers and other 'crucial infrastructure' of the energy system."

Initially the requirement was for 6,500 personnel to guard designated pipelines and installations, but this grew over the period of the contract to reach 16,000 Iraqi staff guarding 282 locations and included an aerial surveillance capability.