Electricity towers targeted by ISIS across Iraq

KERKESLOKH, Iraq – The Islamic State (ISIS) continues to target power infrastructure across Iraq. The General Company for the Transmission of Northern Electricity announced on Tuesday the occurrence of what it described as a new act of sabotage targeting power lines in Kerkeslokh (Kirkuk) which led to the collapse of seven transmission towers.

The ministry, in its statement, declared that the sabotage included targeting two new towers with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) placed at the base of the towers.

The company later added in an additional statement that 27 towers Nineveh, Kerkeslokh (Kirkuk), and Salah al-Din governorates had been targeted in less than a week.

The most recent attacks come after a security point of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and the Iraqi Army in the Kwer area, located between the Nineveh and Erbil governorates, was attacked by suspected ISIS elements in the late hours of Monday evening.

Commenting on the incidents of targeting energy towers, member of the Parliamentary Security and Defense Committee Abbas Sarout suggested that the repeated targeting of transmission towers have a political aspect, indicating that this increases the people’s anger.

Sarout told Shafaq News Agency that recently the towers have been increasingly targeted, especially in the western regions of Salah al-Din and Diyala, pointing out that the towers that are targeted are far from ISIS areas.

The sabotage has caused complete power interruptions in a number of cities in the country.