Sunni militants target Iraq's two biggest dams
Source: Associated Press
Fighters with the Islamic State group launched a three-pronged attack over the weekend in a drive to capture Haditha Dam, in western Iraq, a complex with six power generators located alongside Iraq's second-largest reservoir. At the same time, they are fighting to capture Iraq's largest dam, Mosul Dam, in the north of the country.
... They could also use the dams as a weapon of war by flooding terrain downstream to slow Iraq's military or disrupt life. They have done that with a smaller dam they hold closer to Baghdad. But with the larger dams, there are limits on this tactic since it would also flood areas that the insurgents hold.
... {If they opened up the Mosul dam} "Everything under it will be under five to 10 meters (yards) of water... including Baghdad itself," said Ali Khedery, head of the Dubai-based consultancy Dragoman Partners and a longtime adviser to the U.S. military, government and companies in Iraq. "It would be catastrophic."
... Dams are critical in Iraq for generating electricity, regulating river flow and providing irrigation. Water is a precious commodity in this largely desert country of 32.5 million people. The decline of water levels in the Euphrates over recent years has led to electricity shortages in towns south of Baghdad, where steam-powered generators depend entirely on water levels.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/sunni-militants-target-iraqs-two-biggest-dams-172410472.html
I hit my 4 paragraph limit. The article also describes the fighting that has been going on near these dams, and the objective of the I.S. militants is clearly to take the dams.
They are only 6 miles from the Haditha Dam, and nearly took it in an earlier battle.
As for the Mosul dam, there were reports Sunday morning, U.S. time, that the I.S. militants had captured it. But by late Sunday afternoon, those reports were disputed by multiple sources. The above article confirms it hasn't yet happened (as of the article's publication date/time anyway).
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