(Recasts with Shell confirming two new attacks) By Tume Ahemba LAGOS, April 21 (Reuters) - Nigerian rebels attacked two Royal Dutch Shell oil pipelines in the Niger Delta on Monday after a raid last week hit production, in what they called an act of defiance against major consumer the United States. Shell <RDSa.L> said it had been forced to shut 169,000 barrels per day of Bonny Light crude oil production after the first attack last Thursday and was assessing the damage from Monday's strikes on its Soku-Buguma and Buguma-Alakri pipelines. It said it had declared force majeure on Bonny Light exports for the rest of April and May, although it said some oil would still be exported while the measure was in place. Force majeure means it cannot guarantee to meet its contract commitments. The unrest heightened fears about supply disruption and helped push world oil prices to new record highs, with U.S. light crude hitting a record $117.40 a barrel and London Brent also striking an all-time peak at $114.65. In an email sent to Reuters, a faction of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said its commandos had carried out the attacks on Monday against pipelines located at Isaka River and Abonnema River in Rivers State. "Today's attacks ... dispel the false impression that peace and security have been restored in order to gain the confidence of potential investors in the oil and gas sector," MEND said. Nigeria is the fifth largest supplier of oil to the United States, which has cultivated good relations with the government of President Umaru Yar'Adua. Addressing U.S. President George W. Bush, the rebel group said the attacks were "our way of saying 'welcome'" to a U.S. warship, the high-speed vessel Swift, which has been visiting the Gulf of Guinea to conduct training with the Nigerian navy. "Mr President, your warships do not intimidate us. Instead they only embolden our resolve in fighting the Goliaths of the world that support injustice," the MEND statement said. ECONOMIC IMPACT MEND complained that Bush had not responded to past requests from it to mediate talks with the Nigerian government. "The ripple effect of this attack will touch your economy and people one way or the other and (we) hope we now have your attention," the group said. The U.S. government criticised the disputed Nigerian elections that brought Yar'Adua to power last year, but has since engaged with him. MEND said the U.S. government knew the election had been fraudulent but had "looked the other way". It said it was still ready to hold peace talks, but would now prefer former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to act as mediator, instead of Bush. Niger Delta militants often make appeals to the international community but Nigeria has treated the unrest in the delta as an internal matter and so far there have been no international mediators involved in negotiations. MEND is one of several armed groups who say they are fighting to redress injustice in the impoverished region, where five decades of oil extraction have polluted the land and water, and enriched corrupt politicians. But crime and militancy are intertwined in the Delta and such groups make big profits from kidnappings for ransom, from a lucrative trade in stolen oil or from providing thugs-for-hire to politicians who use them to steal elections. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Writing by Nick Tattersall and Pascal Fletcher)
A U.N. police officer from Nigeria lies dead in a truck after being shot in the neighborhood of Bel-Air in Port-au-Prince April 12, 2008. The U.N. peacekeeper was shot to death ...
