Tikrit, Iraq ? Saboteurs blew up a giant oil pipeline in northern Iraq, halting oil exports to Turkey only days after they resumed and cutting off vital income for an economy in shambles. The new Iraqi police commander vowed on Saturday to pursue the “conspirators” behind the attack.

Iraqi oil exports to Turkey had begun only on Wednesday, and the explosion early Friday near Baiji, 125 miles northeast of Baghdad, cut them off completely, acting Iraqi oil minister Thamer al-Ghadaban said in Baghdad.

Police Brig. Gen. Ahmed Ibrahim, once imprisoned for speaking out against Saddam Hussein, was appointed Saturday to be the top Iraqi law enforcement official. He blamed the explosion on “a group of conspirators who received money from a particular party,” which he didn’t identify.

“With God’s help, we will arrest those people and bring them to justice,” Ibrahim said. “The damage inflicted on the pipeline is damage done to all Iraqi people.”

Al-Ghadaban said it would take several days to get the pipeline working again.

The 600-mile pipeline has a diameter of 46 inches. It runs from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to the Turkish city of Ceyhan and handles all oil exports to Turkey.

“There is no oil flowing into Turkey right now,” said Col. Bobby Nicholson, chief engineer for the U.S. Army’s 4th Infantry Division.

Oil began flowing through the pipeline on Wednesday, and Turkey’s semiofficial Anatolia news agency, citing officials, reported 750,000 barrels were pumped before it was attacked.