Iraq’s main oil refinery resumed production on Monday after a 10-day closure in response to insurgents’ threats against truck drivers. Police escorted fuel delivery lorries to petrol-starved Baghdad after Sunni Arab insurgents had exploited public discontent over sudden fuel price rises.

The shutdown at the refinery at Bayji, 210km north of the capital, coincided with a week’s disruption to crude oil exports out of the southern port of Basra.