Iraq's Biggest Dam at Risk as Militants Battle for Control
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The Mosul dam, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of Mosul, is a major supplier of electricity and water. Photographer: Ahmad ...
Bloomberg News
Iraq’s Biggest Dam at Risk as Militants Battle for Control
The
Mosul dam, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of Mosul, is a
major supplier of electricity and water. Photographer: Ahmad
al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images
Kurdish
security forces clashed with a breakaway al-Qaeda group that’s trying
to extend its conquests in northern Iraq by seizing the country’s
largest dam.
Fighting is raging near the Mosul dam, and it is a
“no man’s land,” Sheikh Ahmed Al-Simmari, a resident of the nearby city
of Rabia’ah, said in a phone interview. The Kurds have bolstered their
forces around the area and are preparing a counteroffensive to retake
the Rabia’ah border post with Syria and nearby towns, he said. Islamic State, which was previously known as Islamic State in Iraq and Levant, has seized territory throughout Iraq and declared its own self-styled caliphate, highlighting the central government’s inability to ensure security under Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The group this week seized two oil fields and predominantly Kurdish towns in the north, forcing thousands to flee from their homes.
The dam, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of the city of Mosul which the militants captured in June, is a major supplier of electricity and water. Germany’s Hochtief AG helped build the dam on the Tigris River in the 1980s. If the dam collapsed or was sabotaged it could flood Mosul and surrounding villages.
Energy Wealth
Seizing the dam “would allow the Islamic State to control water systems for the country’s urban areas and farmlands,” Theodore Karasik, director of research at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai, said in a phone interview. “It puts them in a position to influence politics by tampering with water suppliers. They would probably cut supplies.”The dam is functioning normally and is still under government control, Abdul-Jaleel Sahib, deputy director general of the state-run Commission for Dams, said in a phone interview. Kurdish Peshmerga are protecting the dam, Sahib said.
The breakaway al-Qaeda group has enriched itself by seizing infrastructure and energy assets as its makes military gains in Iraq and Syria, where it is battling forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assadand other rebel groups, including the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusrah Front.
Its fighters have also made attempts to seize the Haditha dam, on the Euphrates river in Anbar province northwest of Baghdad, in the past two months. Government officials say they still control that dam too.
Islamic State fighters took over the village of Wana, south of the Mosul dam, Hisham al-Brefkani, member of the provincial council of Nineveh, said yesterday. A retreat by Kurdish fighters from the village was a tactical move to protect the Mosul dam, al-Brefkani said.
Shares Fall
A day earlier, Islamic State fighters captured the town of Zummar and the Ain Zala and Batma oilfields, which together have an output of 30,000 barrels per day, the state-run Northern Oil Co. said yesterday.Explorers of oil in Iraqi Kurdistan region slumped in Oslo and London trading today after the militants seized the oilfields. DNO International ASA (DNO), which gets most of its output from the Kurdish region, fell as much as 9.2 percent, the biggest drop in more than six months. Genel Energy Plc sank as much as 6.6 percent and Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. 2.2 percent.
Kurdish forces have also withdrawn from the town of Sinjar near the Syrian border after clashes, Elias Khodayda, a 49-year-old resident, said by phone.
The Islamist militants “captured a large number of old and young men, drove them to an unknown destination,” Khodayda, who is a member of the Yezidi community, said. “A state of horror and fear dominates the residents, who have started to leave the area.”
The capture of Sinjar has displaced as many as 200,000 people and triggered a “humanitarian tragedy,” the UN Mission in Iraq said yesterday. Most of the displaced are Yezidi -- a Kurdish community whose faith includes features of the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism.
To contact the reporters on this story: Glen Carey in Riyadh at gcarey8@bloomberg.net; Ladane Nasseri in Dubai at lnasseri@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net Mark Williams, Ben Holland
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