Daesh attacks Salah-al Dim power plant in Iraq
The Iraqi Ministry of Electricity has announced that the Salah-al Dim power plant in the archaeological city of Samarra was the target of a Katyusha rocket attack by Daesh. As reported by Anadolu Agency, the impact of the rockets caused severe damage to important parts of the power generating unit. The attack was the first direct attack on a power plant.
In this regard, the Ministry also reported that "two power transmission towers in Diyala governorate were attacked with explosive devices, which caused the separation of the Diyala power transmission line, east of Baghdad".
However, the Security Media Cell in Iraq has announced that "the detachments of the Federal Intelligence Agency and Investigations of the Ministry of Interior were able to thwart the bombing of two power transmission towers, orchestrated by Daesh terrorists" and added that "the area is not controlled by the security forces so an explosives expert was called in for the purpose of dismantling it".
The offensive comes just a week after Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazemi inaugurated the power plant. The facility was intended to supply electricity to areas north of Baghdad and had a production capacity of about 1,260 megawatts. Currently, Iraq produces between 19 and 21,000 megawatts of electricity per day, while the country needs more than 30,000 megawatts to supply its population. For this reason, Iraq imports large amounts of electricity in order to cover the energy deficit.
The country's corruption and mismanagement by successive governments for more than a decade has led to Iraq's chronic electricity crisis and is evidence of the state's failure to meet the population's basic needs.
Egypt has condemned the attacks and underlined its solidarity with Iraq, a day after Al-Sisi visited the country to meet with Iraqi President Barham Saleh and Jordan's King Abdullah II to strengthen ties and enhance cooperation between the three countries on security, cooperation and the economy.
In recent months, Iraq has been the scene of more than 25 Daesh terrorist attacks, according to Iraqi forces. Last January, more than 30 people were killed in a market bombing in Baghdad. In May, at least 19 members of Iraqi and Kurdish forces were killed in different parts of the country, prompting the Iraqi president to warn the population and "urge caution" against the danger of a resurgence of Daesh. In addition to these attacks, five policemen were killed in a new Daesh attack in recent days.
