The New York Times > International > Middle East > Infrastructure: Sabotage Cuts Power to More Than 100 Key Electrical Lines
BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 10 — Sabotage attacks have cut the power flowing through more than 100 of the lines that form the backbone of Iraq's electrical grid since the American-led invasion last year, and nearly 1,200 of the huge towers supporting the lines have been toppled, according to an internal Iraqi government report obtained by The New York Times.
While most of the damage occurred last year and has since been repaired, the report shows that in the first months of 2004, far more attacks occurred than were publicly reported by the Iraqi government or occupation forces. The report details 68 incidents, ranging from shelling towers to shooting apart lines, in the first three months of this year alone.
The report does not contain statistics since March. The information is generally compiled only at the end of each quarter, said an Iraqi government official who provided the report. But American and Iraqi officials knowledgeable about the electrical grid here said that the pace of the attacks had increased in recent months.
"If they've knocked down 1,200 towers, it seems to me that they've knocked down every line at least once," said Hoff Stauffer, a senior consultant and an authority on electrical grids at Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a Massachusetts firm......
In a country where demand for electricity far outstrips supply, leading to regular, rotating blackouts and unpredictable power failures, sabotage to the electrical infrastructure has caused "a nationwide loss of power of more than four hours per day," Dr. Allawi said.
Around Baghdad, informal surveys suggest that residents have electricity 6 to 12 hours a day, with 8 hours being typical.
"Terrorists have increasingly targeted our country's infrastructure," Dr. Allawi said. "These saboteurs are not freedom fighters, they are terrorists and foreign fighters opposed to our very survival as a free state. Anyone involved in these attacks is nothing more than a traitor to the cause of Iraq's freedom and the freedom of its people."............
Some engineers said that because long stretches of the grid were being repaired and extended in work financed by the United States, Iraqi oil revenues and other sources, more and more alternate routes are available for electricity to flow to consumers when part of the system is damaged. Those engineers also pointed out that as repaired sections of line were charged with electricity, damaging them can be much more hazardous to saboteurs.
"The system is getting more robust," said Maj. David E. Bitner of the United States Army Corps of Engineers who is operations officer for a $1.36 billion project called Restore Iraqi Electricity. "It's getting more stable, so the effects are mitigated to some extent by that fact."
BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 10 — Sabotage attacks have cut the power flowing through more than 100 of the lines that form the backbone of Iraq's electrical grid since the American-led invasion last year, and nearly 1,200 of the huge towers supporting the lines have been toppled, according to an internal Iraqi government report obtained by The New York Times.
While most of the damage occurred last year and has since been repaired, the report shows that in the first months of 2004, far more attacks occurred than were publicly reported by the Iraqi government or occupation forces. The report details 68 incidents, ranging from shelling towers to shooting apart lines, in the first three months of this year alone.
The report does not contain statistics since March. The information is generally compiled only at the end of each quarter, said an Iraqi government official who provided the report. But American and Iraqi officials knowledgeable about the electrical grid here said that the pace of the attacks had increased in recent months.
"If they've knocked down 1,200 towers, it seems to me that they've knocked down every line at least once," said Hoff Stauffer, a senior consultant and an authority on electrical grids at Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a Massachusetts firm......
In a country where demand for electricity far outstrips supply, leading to regular, rotating blackouts and unpredictable power failures, sabotage to the electrical infrastructure has caused "a nationwide loss of power of more than four hours per day," Dr. Allawi said.
Around Baghdad, informal surveys suggest that residents have electricity 6 to 12 hours a day, with 8 hours being typical.
"Terrorists have increasingly targeted our country's infrastructure," Dr. Allawi said. "These saboteurs are not freedom fighters, they are terrorists and foreign fighters opposed to our very survival as a free state. Anyone involved in these attacks is nothing more than a traitor to the cause of Iraq's freedom and the freedom of its people."............
Some engineers said that because long stretches of the grid were being repaired and extended in work financed by the United States, Iraqi oil revenues and other sources, more and more alternate routes are available for electricity to flow to consumers when part of the system is damaged. Those engineers also pointed out that as repaired sections of line were charged with electricity, damaging them can be much more hazardous to saboteurs.
"The system is getting more robust," said Maj. David E. Bitner of the United States Army Corps of Engineers who is operations officer for a $1.36 billion project called Restore Iraqi Electricity. "It's getting more stable, so the effects are mitigated to some extent by that fact."
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