Al-Abadi rivals sabotage Iraq’s power lines and fuel protests

Protests in Basra against government services started last month after power supplies plummeted. (AFP)
Updated 07 August 2018
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Al-Abadi rivals sabotage Iraq’s power lines and fuel protests

  • Sabotage of power lines increased dramatically after protests began
  • 'Almost all the political parties are involved,' senior national security official tells Arab News.

BAGHDAD: Growing attacks against Iraq’s electricity infrastructure are being orchestrated to fuel widespread protests and thwart Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi’s attempts to quell the crisis, Iraqi officials have told Arab News.

Sabotage of power lines and pylons has increased dramatically in the three weeks since protests in the south plunged the country into its latest security emergency.

Demonstrations in impoverished Shiite-dominated provinces and Baghdad have focused on the lack of basic services and high rates of poverty and unemployment.

But the main trigger for the protests, which started in Basra on July 18, was the serious shortage of electricity, leaving Iraqis with less than six hours of power a day in summer when temperatures reach 50 degrees Celsius.

The situation was exacerbated when Iran suspended the supply of 1,000 megawatts across the border, after Iraq was unable to maintain payments due to the difficulty of sending money because of new sanctions.

While sabotage of power lines is relatively common in Iraq, attacks became a daily occurrence just two days after the protests started in Basra, the country’s main oil hub.

Official records obtained by Arab News showed that between July 20 and Aug. 4 at least 22 sabotage attacks targeted power lines supplying the southern and northern provinces except the Kurdistan Region.

Just five attacks took place between the start of April and July 20.

Most of the damage involved shooting down power lines or blowing up the bases of towers, officials told Arab News. 

“These are sabotage attacks, not terrorist, and they are aimed at weakening the government and covering up the ministry’s achievement,” Mohammed Fattehi, the media adviser to the Minister of Electricity, told Arab News.

“Our maintenance teams work day and night to repair the damage, but the attacks occur on a daily basis, indicating that they are planned, not random.”

The sabotage and the protests are taking place at a time when Iraq is in political limbo after May elections, with attempts to build a coalition large enough to form a government stalled. 

Arab News reported last month that protests have been hijacked by political forces attempting to harness the public anger to further their own causes. 

Many have used the demonstrations to weaken Abadi, who is hoping to secure his second term as prime minister.

Investigations by Ministry of Electricity field teams and local security services recorded that the attacks were carried out by unknown persons, but federal security officials said they have identified perpetrators in each region. 

“Almost all the political parties are involved,” a senior national security official told Arab News.

“Our investigations suggest they (the parties) have been funding these attacks.

“Kurdish parties are behind most of the attacks that took place near Kirkuk and Diyala. Sunni and Shiite parties are totally behind the rest. 

“They aim to fuel the demonstrations and promote the idea of Abadi’s inability to address the problem (of electricity).”

The security official said that in the south and near Baghdad, all Abadi’s rivals are involved in the attacks. Even Sadrists (the followers of Muqtada A-Sadr), who publicly support Abadi, have carried out some of these attacks, the official said.

Decades of neglect, wars and economic blockade, along with the absence of strategic planning and the spread of corruption, have derailed nearly all of Iraq’s infrastructure projects, especially in the water and electricity sectors.

Most Iraqis receive less than 12 hours of electricity a day from the national grid. This is cut to less than half in summer, especially in the southern provinces, when usage spikes amid the high temperatures.

Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity said the country needs between 22,000 and 23,000 megawatts at peak times in summer. Current production does not exceed 15,000 megawatts in a country with some of the world’s largest oil reserves and vast solar potential.

The attacks on the power lines often cause power to go down across vast areas for 24 hours at at time. 

Anger at the shortages meant the protests quickly turned violent, with 14 demonstrators killed and hundreds wounded, mostly members of the security forces.

Protesters stormed headquarters of oil companies in Basra, an airport in Najaf and several partisan offices in Ammara, Najaf and Diwaniya and set fire to government buildings in other provinces.

Since the 2003 US-led invasion, the Ministry of Electricity has been one of the wealthiest government departments, and political parties have battled to control it because of its high annual budget.

They have also used the department as a tool to attack their rivals. 

Successive Iraqi governments spent more than $60 billion in the last 15 years to develop the electricity sector, but no significant improvement has been seen. 

All the ministers and deputy ministers who ran the ministry during the past four governments have left their positions facing corruption charges. Only one has been convicted so far. 

The current electricity minister, Qassim Al-Fahdawi, was interrogated by parliament last year over alleged corruption, but kept his job due to a lack of evidence.

In an attempt to appease protesters, Abadi last week suspended Fahdawi “to investigate the reasons behind the weak performance of his ministry.” 

To prove the failure of any government, political parties usually resort to focusing on electricity.

In October 2013, the political rivals of Nuri Al-Maliki, the then prime minister, refused to vote on a bill that would allow him to offer contracts to global companies to build multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects to improve the daily basic services. The move was one of the main factors that denied him a third term.

“It (electricity) is purely a political file that has been used in the past 15 years to pressure successive governments,” Iraqi analyst Abdulwahid Tuama told Arab News.

“They used it to prevent Al-Maliki from winning a third term and now they are using it to prevent Abadi from winning a second.”


‘Many more’ Conservative MPs back UK govt stance on Israel: MP

Updated 24 May 2025
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‘Many more’ Conservative MPs back UK govt stance on Israel: MP

  • Mark Pritchard: PM ‘on right side of history’ after joint statement condemning Gaza war
  • Britain must recognize Palestinian state in ‘huge symbol of support’

LONDON: “Many more” Conservative MPs in the UK privately support calls by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and British allies for Israel to end its Gaza war, a Conservative MP has said.

Mark Pritchard told LBC that Starmer is on the “right side of history” and “humanity,” The Independent reported on Saturday.

However, Pritchard refused to criticize Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who questioned new British sanctions on Israeli settlers and a joint UK-France-Canada statement on Gaza this week.

The leaders of the three countries condemned “egregious” Israeli actions in Gaza and threatened to take “concrete actions” if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fails to change course.

In response, Netanyahu accused the UK, France and Canada of being on the “wrong side of justice.”

Pritchard, who describes himself as strongly pro-Israel, told LBC: “Half the population of Gaza are children. They are being literally bombed to bits every single day. They are being slowly starved.

“It’s absolutely right the UK prime minister, who so happens to be a Labour prime minister right now, would stand up on the right side.

“I push it back to the Israeli prime minister. I think Keir Starmer and those standing up for the children of Gaza are on the right side of history, the right side of humanity and are making the right moral judgment.”

Pritchard said he now believes in the necessity of Britain recognizing a Palestinian state. “It may be symbolic, but I think it will be a huge symbol of support both for the Israelis that want to see that and also for the Palestinians. But the key point at the moment is the Israeli government need to be held to account,” he added.

“I support the UK prime minister and many more, by the way, in the British Conservative Party, are coming up to me privately at the moment.”

On Friday, Badenoch said the government’s new actions targeting Israeli settlers and trade relations with the country are not the “right way” to resolve differences with Netanyahu.

Pritchard told LBC: “I’m coming on to support Kemi on the comments on antisemitism and supporting the prime minister on his strong stand, finally, on what’s going on in Gaza.”


UAE hits record May temperature of 51.6C

Updated 24 May 2025
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UAE hits record May temperature of 51.6C

  • The highest temperature recorded over the country was 51.6C in Sweihan (Al Ain)
  • Scientists have shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates breached its May temperature record for the second day in a row, hitting 51.6 degrees Celsius on Saturday, according to the National Center of Meteorology.

“The highest temperature recorded over the country today is 51.6C in Sweihan (Al Ain) at 13:45 UAE local time (0945 GMT),” the office said in a post on X, 1.2C hotter than the temperature recorded on Friday in the Abu Dhabi area.

Both those temperatures exceeded a previous record for the month of 50.2 Celsius recorded in May 2009, according to the meteorology office.

The desert nation lies in one of the planet’s hottest regions and one which is particularly vulnerable to climate change.

Scientists have shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming and that these heatwaves are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense.

The number of extremely hot days has nearly doubled globally in the past three decades.

According to a 2022 Greenpeace study, the Middle East is at high risk of water and food scarcity as well as severe heat waves as a result of climate change.

The report, which focused on six countries, found the region was warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, making its food and water supplies “extremely vulnerable” to climate change.


Nine of Gazan doctor’s 10 children killed in Israeli air strike

Updated 24 May 2025
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Nine of Gazan doctor’s 10 children killed in Israeli air strike

  • Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar also saw her husband, Dr. Hamdi Al-Najjar, critically injured
  • Couple’s only surviving child, 11-year-old boy, was severely wounded

LONDON: A pediatrician working in southern Gaza has lost nine of her 10 children in an Israeli air strike that hit her family home, in what fellow medics have described as an “unimaginable” tragedy.

Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar, who was on duty at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis at the time of the strike, also saw her husband, Dr. Hamdi Al-Najjar, critically injured.

The couple’s only surviving child, an 11-year-old boy, was severely wounded and underwent emergency surgery on Friday, according to reports.

“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” said Dr. Muneer Alboursh, director general of Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. “In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted, Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”

Graphic footage shared by Palestinian Civil Defense, and verified by media outlets including the BBC, showed the remains of small children being pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building near a petrol station in Khan Younis.

British surgeon Dr. Graeme Groom, who is volunteering at Nasser hospital, said Dr Al-Najjar’s surviving son was his final patient of the day.

“He was very badly injured and seemed much younger as we lifted him onto the operating table,” he said in a video posted to social media.

Groom added that the child’s father, also a physician at the same hospital, had “no political and no military connections and doesn’t seem to be prominent on social media,” calling the strike “a particularly sad day.”

He continued: “It is unimaginable for that poor woman, both of them are doctors here… and yet his poor wife is the only uninjured one, who has the prospect of losing her husband.”

Relative Youssef Al-Najjar, speaking to AFP, made an emotional plea: “Enough. Have mercy on us. We plead to all countries, the international community, the people, Hamas, and all factions to have mercy on us. We are exhausted from the displacement and the hunger.”

Dr. Victoria Rose, another British doctor at the hospital, said the family had lived near a petrol station and speculated that the strike may have caused or been worsened by a large explosion. “That is life in Gaza. That is the way it goes in Gaza,” she said.

The Israel Defence Forces did not comment directly on the strike, but in a general statement said it had hit more than 100 targets across Gaza in a 24-hour period.

The Hamas-run health ministry reported at least 74 Palestinian deaths in that time frame alone.

The UN has warned that Gaza may be entering its “cruelest phase” of the war, with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denouncing Israel’s restrictions on aid as exacerbating a humanitarian catastrophe.

Although Israel partially lifted its blockade this week, allowing limited aid to enter, the UN says the deliveries fall far short of the 500–600 trucks of supplies needed daily to meet basic needs for the territory’s 2.1 million people.

Since Israel launched its offensive after Hamas militants stormed into Israel, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 251 others, on Oct. 7, 2023, more than 53,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which includes women and children in its total but does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.


Erdogan, Syria’s Sharaa hold talks in Istanbul

Updated 24 May 2025
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Erdogan, Syria’s Sharaa hold talks in Istanbul

  • Video footage on Turkish television showed Erdogan shaking hands with Sharaa
  • The two countries’ foreign ministers also attended the talks

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was holding talks with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Istanbul on Saturday, news channel CNN Turk and state media said, broadcasting video of the two leaders greeting each other.

The visit comes the day after US President Donald Trump’s administration issued orders that it said would effectively lift sanctions on Syria. Trump had pledged to unwind the measures to help the country rebuild after its devastating civil war.

Video footage on Turkish television showed Erdogan shaking hands with Sharaa as he emerged from his car at the Dolmabahce Palace on the shores of the Bosphorus Strait in Turkiye’s largest city.

The two countries’ foreign ministers also attended the talks, as well as Turkiye’s defense minister and the head of the Turkish MIT intelligence agency, according to Turkiye’s state-owned Anadolu news agency.

The Syrian delegation also included Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra, according to Syrian state news agency SANA.

MIT chief Ibrahim Kalin and Sharaa this week held talks in Syria on the Syrian Kurdish YPG militant group laying down its weapons and integrating into Syrian security forces, a Turkish security source said previously.


US strike on Yemen kills Al-Qaeda members: Yemeni security sources

Updated 24 May 2025
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US strike on Yemen kills Al-Qaeda members: Yemeni security sources

  • “Five Al-Qaeda members were eliminated,” said a security source in Abyan
  • Washington once regarded the group as the militant network’s most dangerous branch

DUBAI: Five Al-Qaeda members have been killed in a strike blamed on the United States in southern Yemen, two Yemeni security sources told AFP on Saturday.

“Residents of the area informed us of the US strike... five Al-Qaeda members were eliminated,” said a security source in Abyan province, which borders the seat of Yemen’s internationally-recognized government in Aden.

“The US strike on Friday evening north of Khabar Al-Maraqsha killed five,” said a second source, referring to a mountainous area known to be used by Al-Qaeda.

The second security source added that, though the names of those killed in the strike were not known, it was believed one of Al-Qaeda’s local leaders was among the dead.

Washington once regarded the group, known as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as the militant network’s most dangerous branch.

Born in 2009 from the merger of Al-Qaeda’s Yemeni and Saudi factions, AQAP grew and developed in the chaos of Yemen’s war, which since 2015 has pitted the Iran-backed Houthi militants against a Saudi-led coalition backing the government.

Earlier this month, the United States agreed a ceasefire with the Houthis, who have controlled large swathes of Yemen for more than a decade, ending weeks of intense American strikes on militant-held areas of the country.

The Houthis began firing at shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in November 2023, weeks after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, prompting military strikes by the US and Britain beginning in January 2024.

The conflict in Yemen has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, although fighting decreased significantly after a UN-negotiated six-month truce in 2022.