Erbil-Kirkuk power line attacked : electricity ministry

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — An electricity transmission line connecting Kirkuk and central Erbil was bombed in a “terrorist attack” on Sunday, Iraq’s electricity ministry said in a statement on Monday. 

Two electricity towers were damaged in the attack, according to the statement, with maintenance teams dispatched to assess the damages.

Attacks on Iraq’s electricity sector are an “attempt to kill life in the country that defeats terrorism,” the statement added. 

The Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for many attacks on power lines and towers across Iraq this summer. Attacks on the grid have left millions in central and southern Iraq without power, battling temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius.

ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and Syria in 2019, but remains a threat on both sides of the border, carrying out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces. 

Iraqi forces have thwarted tens of attacks on the electricity towers, and in an emergency security meeting on Friday, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi ordered the establishment of a crisis cell to ensure the power grid is protected. 

“The hand of terror and the parties that don’t want the good of Iraq are trying to shuffle the cards by striking the electricity transmission towers,” Kadhimi said in a tweet following the meeting, adding work to repair the damage is ongoing.

In its propaganda magazine, ISIS has claimed to have carried out 134 attacks on electricity towers between June 6 and August 10. Its claimed activities have not decreased, despite Iraq’s security efforts, as the group said it carried out 33 attacks on power pylons in the last week alone.

Iraqi forces on Saturday morning launched a large-scale security operation to clear out the group’s remnants in northern Baghdad. A number of suspects were arrested. 

A top military official on Sunday announced the arrest of several ISIS suspects, and state media reported the killing of an ISIS leader as forces raided his home in northern Baghdad.