Iraq restores power after blackouts hit the country
Electricity ministry sources had told Reuters a sudden shutdown at the Hamidiya power plant in the western province of Anbar led to a fault in the electricity transmission network that caused a power outage in the central and southern regions of the country.
The temperature in the capital Baghdad reached a high of 48 degrees Celsius (118.4 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday.
"The defect was brought under control and fixed in record time, and the power system is now stable," Adel Karim, an adviser to the Iraqi prime minister, told Reuters on Tuesday.
Many Iraqis have relied for years on privately operated generators for power as government-provided electricity was only intermittently available. Others have turned to solar power to help meet their electricity needs.
A member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, and one of the world's leading oil producers, Iraq has struggled to provide its citizens with energy since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
In the ensuing turmoil, under-investment and mismanagement left the national grid unable to cope with demand.
In March, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration rescinded a waiver that had allowed Iraq to pay Iran for electricity, as part of Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign against Tehran.
Iraq is heavily dependent on Iranian natural gas imports to generate power.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The National
2 hours ago
- The National
US confirms change in status of military mission in Iraq
The US confirmed to The National a change in the status of its military mission in Iraq, which it said was transitioning to a bilateral security partnership. The move comes ahead of its scheduled withdrawal from certain areas in the country by next month. Iraq and the US announced an agreement in September last year that would see the end of the mission of the US-led coalition against ISIS by next month, with the remainder of the forces to depart by the end of 2026. Amid reports suggesting US troops had begun withdrawing from the Ain Al Assad base in western Iraq and Baghdad International Airport to Erbil in the Kurdistan region, a US Embassy spokesperson told The National that this marked a "transition of the Coalition's military mission in Iraq to a more traditional bilateral security partnership". "This is not the end of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, which will continue civilian-led efforts globally," the spokesperson said, stopping short of explicitly confirming whether some troops had been moved. Hussein Allawi, adviser to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani, told The National on Monday that the government remained committed to ending the US-led mission and shifting to a bilateral security partnership – without either side detailing what this would entail. 'The government's vision is to find a sustainable relationship that covers all fields, among them the security field,' he said. He noted that this approach has been pursued through 'a set of methodological foundations', beginning with the Higher Military Committee that discussed the mission of the International Coalition and the ending of the missions in September 2025 and 2026. According to the plan, coalition activities at its headquarters and at the Ain Al Assad airbase will conclude in September 2025 as part of the first phase. The second and final phase is scheduled for completion in September 2026. He stressed that the process reflects 'the Iraqi government's commitment to implementing the agreement on ending the missions of the International Coalition and transferring the relations towards bilateral relations,' describing it as a return to 'normal bilateral relations to the stage before the fall of Mosul on June 10, 2014'. Iraq seeks to maintain co-operation with the US, UK, Spain, Turkey, Nato and the European Union 'under the path of strategic agreements between the Republic of Iraq and the friendly countries of Iraq," he added. In particular, Baghdad aims to keep ties with Washington under the umbrella of the existing Strategic Framework Agreement. Dispute over US presence The US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS was formed in 2014 to degrade and defeat the group. Its military operations began with air strikes and later expanded to include advising and training Iraqi security forces. Currently, about 2,500 are based in Iraq, where they work with Iraqi and Kurdish partners against ISIS cells. Iraq is also a launch pad for US-led anti-ISIS operations in Syria, where the group continues to operate but no longer controls territory. US presence in the country has been a major point of contention in domestic Iraqi politics, sparking opposition from Tehran as well as Iran-aligned groups and politicians. The agreement for a staggered withdrawal was the outcome of increasing pressure by these factions on the Iraqi government to expel US forces from the country. American forces have also come under repeated attacks by Iran-backed forces since the US killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief Qassem Soleimani in an air strike in 2020. Ain Al Assad, one of the largest military installations housing US troops, was targeted by Iranian missiles in response, causing more than 100 troops to suffer traumatic brain injuries. Attacks also saw a surge in the aftermath of Israel's war on Gaza in October, 2023, with groups operating under the umbrella of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claiming rocket and drone attacks on US assets. The change in the mission's status comes days after a security agreement between Iran and Iraq, signed during Iran's top security chief's visit to the country, sparked US backlash.
The National
20 hours ago
- The National
Iraq begins long-awaited excavation of largest ISIS-era mass grave
Authorities in Iraq on Sunday began exhuming bodies from a vast natural sinkhole south of Mosul that is believed to have been turned into the country's largest mass grave by ISIS. The Governor of Nineveh, Abdul Qadir Al Dakhil, announced the start of the first phase of the excavation of Al Khasfa cemetery, which lies in a remote area about 20km outside Mosul. The provincial government will work to build a memorial to commemorate the victims, Mr Abdul Qadir said. Senior judicial officials oversaw the operations, marking a long-delayed step to recover the remains of thousands of people believed to have been executed and dumped into the pit during ISIS control of the city between 2014 and 2017. A forensics team – clad in white protective suits, gloves and masks – carefully began digging at the site. They methodically brushed away dirt and debris, documenting every step of the process. Nearby, some remains were covered with plastic sheets. For now, authorities say the immediate task is to recover and identify the dead in the surrounding area. Forensic experts are expected to begin DNA testing once remains are retrieved. The first phase focuses on the area surrounding the sinkhole with surface-level excavation, cleaning up, and the preservation of evidence, the General Director of Mass Graves Department at the Martyrs Foundation Dhiya Al Saiedi said. All remains that will be exhumed will be handed over to the Forensic Medicine Department for final examination, Mr Al Saiedi added in a statement. Human Rights Watch first identified Al Khasfa in 2017, reporting that ISIS fighters turned the natural sinkhole into a killing field where they disposed of potentially thousands of victims. Later investigations by Iraqi and international groups described it as the largest mass grave linked to ISIS. A UN-backed survey in 2018 recorded more than 200 ISIS-era mass graves across Iraq, many in and around Mosul, with an estimated 6,000 to 12,000 bodies buried. For years, families of the missing have pressed the government to open Al Khasfa, but technical challenges, security concerns and funding delays stalled efforts. In March, Nineveh authorities announced that they had secured money and logistical support to begin the dig, describing Al Khasfa as a "priority case' for the courts and forensics teams. The excavation comes against the backdrop of Iraq winding down international support for war crimes investigations. The UN's investigative team for ISIS crimes, Unitad, ended its mandate in 2024 after Baghdad declined to renew it. Rights groups have since urged Iraq to ensure evidence recovery and prosecutions continue without international oversight. ISIS overran large parts of Iraq and Syria, in the summer of 2014, declaring a caliphate that spanned areas of both countries. During that time, the extremists led a campaign of widespread and systematic violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Three years later, Iraqi forces, backed by a US-led international coalition, reclaimed all ISIS-held territory across the country after gruelling fighting that left thousands dead and large areas in ruin. Hundreds of mass graves have since been discovered in various parts of Iraq, mainly around the Yazidi minority hometown of Sinjar, in the north-west. In August 2014, ISIS fighters captured Sinjar and the surrounding villages, taking thousands of Yazidis captive and killing others.
Khaleej Times
a day ago
- Khaleej Times
Iraq starts work on Daesh mass grave thought to contain thousands
Iraqi authorities have begun excavating the site of a mass grave believed to contain thousands of victims of the Daesh group near Mosul city, the project's director told AFP on Sunday. The first phase, which was launched on August 10, includes surface-level excavation at the Khasfa site, director Ahmed Al Assadi said. An AFP correspondent visiting the site in northern Iraq on Sunday said the team unearthed human skulls buried in the sand. Khasfa is located near Mosul, where Daesh had established the capital of their self-declared "caliphate" before being defeated in Iraq in late 2017. Assadi said that there were no precise figures for the numbers of victims buried there — one of dozens of mass graves IDaesh left behind in Iraq — but a UN report from 2018 said Khasfa was likely the country's largest. Official estimates put the number of bodies buried at the site at at least 4,000, with the possibility of thousands more. The project director said the victims buried there include "soldiers executed by IS", members of the Yazidi minority and residents of Mosul. Exhuming the bodies from Khasfa is particularly difficult, Assadi said, as underground sulphur water makes the earth very porous. The water may have also eroded the human remains, complicating DNA identification of victims, he added. Assadi said further studies will be required before his team can dig deeper and exhume bodies at the site -- a sinkhole about 150-metre (nearly 500-foot) deep and 110-metre wide. Iraqi authorities said it was the site of "one of the worst massacres" committed by Daesh militants, executing 280 in a single day in 2016, many of them interior ministry employees. In a lightning advance that began in 2014, IDaesh had seized large swathes Iraq and neighbouring Syria, enforcing a strict interpretation of Islamic law and committing widespread abuses. The United Nations estimates the militants left behind more than 200 mass graves which might contain as many as 12,000 bodies. In addition to Daesh-era mass graves, Iraqi authorities continue to unearth such sites dating to the rule of Saddam Hussein, who was toppled in a US-led invasion in 2003.
