Entire country of Iraq loses electric power after attack.

Houston Chronicle:
KIRKUK, Iraq - Saboteurs blew up a junction where multiple oil pipelines cross the Tigris River in northern Iraq today, setting off a chain reaction in power generation systems that left the entire country without power, officials said.

Firefighters struggled to put out the blaze after the attack near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad. Crude oil cascaded down the hillside into the river. Fire burned atop the water, fueled by the gushing oil.

Beiji is the point where several oil pipelines converge, said Lt. Col. Lee Morrison of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

One of them apparently was a domestic pipeline that fed a local power plant. The explosion set off a fire that melted cables and led to the power outage, electricity officials said...

...Iraq's Minister of Electricity Ayham al-Samarie said electricity ministry's technicians and engineers have been working to restore power for hours and 30 percent of the work has been done.

"This made the Beiji Electricity station stop for technical reasons making the whole electricity system (in Iraq) stop," al-Samarie said in a statement released by his office.

That's quite an inconvenience for the people of Iraq.
As these attacks continue to have a negative impact on the people of Iraq, the people committing these attacks will be increasingly unpopular with the majority of the population.

The insurgents may get support from Iraqis for the attacks against the coalition troops as it could be seen as defending the country against an occupying force but the attacks that affect the people of Iraq can not be defended.


[edit on 14-9-2004 by AceOfBase]