Drone attack halts Iraq’s Khor Mor gasfield, cuts Kurdish power

Sulaimaniyah — A drone attack on the Khor Mor gasfield in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region has started a fire at the facility and cut power across much of the region, Iraqi and Kurdish officials said. The Sunday night strike left more than 70 percent of the Kurdish region without electricity, Al Jazeera reported.

It was not clear who carried out the attack, or whether it was linked to the United States and Israel’s war on Iran. Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad verified footage showing smoke and flames rising from the vicinity of the gasfield in Sulaimaniyah governorate.

Omid Ahmed, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Electricity, said the attack suspended gas supply to power plants in Erbil, Sulaimaniyah, Bazian, Chamchamal and Duhok, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported. He put the loss at between 2,500 and 2,800 megawatts of generation. Al Jazeera’s Peter Smith, reporting from Baghdad, cited security sources saying the explosive-laden drone hit the Khor Mor gas storage facility, cutting the grid’s capacity by 70 to 80 percent.

Ahmed said the ministry would keep electricity flowing to critical facilities, including hospitals and water treatment plants, by running hydroelectric stations and other plants on alternative fuel.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said there were no casualties, based on an initial assessment, INA reported. He also ordered a joint investigative committee with the relevant authorities in the Kurdish region to examine the circumstances of the attack.

The strike comes amid heightened regional tensions. A drone hit the same facility last year; no group claimed responsibility then either. For households and hospitals across the Kurdish region, the immediate question is more basic: how quickly hydroelectric and alternative-fuel plants can fill the gap, and how long the lights stay on while investigators work out who sent the drone.