Iraq
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi meets with Iraq I Ministerial Council for National Security on June 28, 2021. Photo: PM media office.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Iraqi Ministerial Council for National Security held an urgent meeting on Monday chaired by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, which discussed terrorist attacks on electric power plants and transmission towers, among other issues, the PM's office announced on Monday.
A statement from the PM’s office said the production of electric power has reached more than 20,000 megawatts, the highest in the history of the Iraqi state, but terrorist groups through sabotage have caused a loss to energy supplied to areas in Baghdad and the Middle Euphrates.
"There are arrears due to investors in billions [Iraqi dinars] and to the countries from which we import energy and gas … these dues were not included in the budget,” the statement said
The council also said the national power network contains 46,000 towers and stated the cost of repairing each damaged tower reaches 30 million dinars.
The Ministry of Electricity announced on Sunday a power line in Diyala province, east of Baghdad, went out of service due to sabotage operations near the Khan Bani Saad area, hours after the Salahaddin thermal station in Samarra was attacked by Katyusha missiles.
Kadhimi directed the Joint Operations Command to hold an urgent meeting within 24 hours to come up with an integrated strategy, in cooperation with the Ministry of Electricity in order to ensure the smooth flow of the electric supply to Iraqi citizens.
Power lines are frequently subjected to attacks, usually blamed on the Islamic State (ISIS).
Electricity provision is a problem across Iraq, particularly in the summer months.
Iraq has long suffered from chronic outages and electricity shortages. Such shortages have in past years been a rallying call for protesters, most notably in the summer of 2018. Prominent Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr on Sunday, called for the dismissal of the minister of electricity.
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