Saudis Behind Attacks on Iraqi Power Grid?

Date: 12 July 2021 - 21:44

News ID: ۹۲۳۸۰

BAGHDAD (Dispatches) -- Two electricity pylons transmitting Iran’s electricity from Mersad to Iraq’s Diyala, near Lake Hamrin, have been blown up, informed sources were reported as saying on Monday. No further details about the incident were provided, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported. Iraq’s electricity lines have been targeted repeatedly in the past few months, mostly in territories where Daesh remnants still pose a threat. Last month, Iraq’s Electricity Ministry announced that the country’s Salah al-Din Power Station in the holy city of Samarra had been targeted by Katyusha rockets, causing severe damage to

parts of the generating unit, in an attack claimed by Daesh.
Several Iraqi power towers along the electricity transfer line from the eastern Diyala province to east Baghdad were also damaged in explosions that shut electric power.
Last month, the Iraqi ministry said a major power line in Kirkuk governorate was out of service after an act of “sabotage” which targeted two nearby electricity pylons.
The recent attacks have inflicted recurring power outages on Iraqis, who have already been grappling with soaring temperatures in a year of drought and water shortages where summer temperatures reach over 50 degrees Celsius.
The attacks also coincide with the United States’ targeting of the headquarters of the 14th Brigade of the anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), in what observers regard as Washington’s efforts to revive Daesh and, in turn, prolong its illegal occupation of Iraq under the pretext of fighting the terrorist group.
The Iraqi army, police and the PMU have joined forces to protect the country’s power lines from the attacks.
Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah resistance group, which is a part of the PMU, said last week that Saudi Arabia’s spy service was responsible for the attacks.
“With definitive evidence, we have concluded that the Saudi intelligence agency is behind the acts of sabotage against Iraqi transmission towers,” the group said.