ERBIL — A town in Iraq’s Salahaddin province is left without power after an explosion destroyed a power pylon in the early morning on Thursday.
Country’s Ministry of Electricity said in a statement that the explosion targeted Pylon no. 68 in Abbasiyah subdistrict of Salahadding, which has caused a complete blackout in Samarra.
With a population of nearly 400,000 people, Samarra is located on the east bank of the river Tigris, 125 kilometers (78 miles) north of capital Baghdad.
A serious of repeated sabotage attacks, often carried out with improvised explosive devices (IED), challenge Iraq’s power grid in the extremely hot season. Similar attacks were reported in other provinces in the recent weeks.
No group or organization has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks, but the government believes the Islamic State (IS) insurgents are behind the attacks.
The statement by the Ministry of Electricity said technical teams were dispatched to the area to fix the pylons and bring the power quickly.
Elsewhere in the same province, the IS militants attacked a unit of Hashd al-Shaabi milia forces on Thursday morning, killing one fighter and wounding another, local sources said.
Earlier this week, BasNews reported that 27 power pylons and transmissions were destroyed in separate attacks across Iraq within one week alone.
Public services in Iraq remain scarce after decades of war and violence. The shortage in water, electricity, and other services forces tens of thousands of people to pour onto streets back in 2019.
The protests later let do violence after a deadly crackdown on the demonstrations in Baghdad and the southern provinces of the country.
READ MORE: Nearly 30 Attacks on Iraq's Power Grids in One Week