Militant group claim to have destroyed another pipeline

The militant group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) claimed to have destroyed another Royal Dutch Shell pipeline at approximately 1830 local time on 18 September 2008. According to a statement by the group, the attack occurred at the Elem-Kalabari Cawthorne Channel axis in Rivers state. MEND released no further details on the attack. If confirmed, this will be the fifth attack against Shell facilities in the Niger Delta in a week's time. Meanwhile, two South Africans who were abducted from an oil services ship were freed on the night of 18 September. MEND representatives, who returned the men to Nigerian officials in Port Harcourt, claimed that they had rescued them from "sea pirates."