A fire and several explosions led to power blackouts in a country that sees them regularly during summer heat.
A fire at a power station in southern Iraq and several explosions have affected the country’s ailing national electricity grid as temperatures rise.
A statement by Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity on Saturday said a fire broke out shortly after noon at the Al-Bkir station in the southern city of Basra.
This led to the separation of transmission lines linking southern and central regions, and resulted in a “total shutdown” of the electrical system in the area, it said.
The AFP news agency quoted ministry spokesman Ahmed Moussa as saying the outage at some point affected the main supply to “all of Iraq”.
Three electricity towers in the north were also reportedly hit by sabotage attacks on Saturday, according to a local transmission company which said they were hit by improvised explosive devices, temporarily cutting off service.
It did not say who was responsible for the attack, but ISIL (ISIS) fighters and other armed groups have been known to be active in the area.
There were also reports and a video online purporting to show a fire burning at night at the electricity station in the Jamila neighbourhood, located within Sadr City in eastern Baghdad.
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