Baghdad plunges into darkness

By Ali al-Mawsawi
Azzaman, January 10, 2007

There is no electricity in Baghdad and the city of nearly 6 million people spends its nights in total darkness.

The Ministry of Electricity says the total outage is the result of sabotage in which power lines feeding Baghdad were knocked out.

Nearly four years after the U.S. invasion, the country still has less electricity than under the former leader Saddam Hussein who was executed last month.

It is not only Baghdad that is plunged into darkness. The national grid is so rickety that no province in the country now enjoys non-interrupted supplies.

A source at the ministry said two high-voltage power lines feeding Baghdad were sabotaged.

He said technicians were working to have them repaired.

But even under normal circumstances the national grid is off for nearly 20 hours a day in Baghdad.

The outage comes as Iraqi forces aided by U.S. troops are battling anti-U.S. rebels in streets just a stone’s throw from the heavily fortified Green Zone where the Americans and Iraqi government have their headquarters.