Electrical towers again become targets in Iraq
Iraq's transmission towers are increasingly the target of bombings.
Water supply plants stopped operations entirely Aug. 14 in the Karkh neighborhood of Iraq's capital Baghdad after the power plants supplying it with electricity were bombed. The incident falls within a series of organized attacks on power plants across Iraq. In response, Iraqi President Mustafa al-Kadhimi stated Aug. 14, "The terrorists and chaos spreading forces are behind these events as they do not want stability for the country." On Aug. 13, Kadhimi tweeted, "Terrorists and fundamentalists do not want anything good to happen in Iraq. They are trying to change the situation by targeting the power plants."
Since Aug. 9, the Qayyarah-Mosul Dam supply line in the north of the country has been targeted with explosives leading to the collapse of three towers. A day of targeting these facilities led to the decrease of power supply for hours in Ninevah province.
The attacks spread from the center to the south of Iraq. On Aug. 12, power supply lines in Karbala center were hit with explosives impacting two towers.
These attacks have been an ongoing issue in the country, with incidents often being attributed to the Islamic State (IS). The expansion of the war on transmission towers pushed the Iraqi army on Aug. 13, 2020, to devise a new plan to secure the towers. They dug trenches and set up barbed wire around towers so that they could not be bombed.
