BAGHDAD: Militants have closed all gates of a Euphrates River dam they control in Iraq, blocking a major water source, a minister said yesterday, while violence killed 15 people.
The latest unrest comes amid a protracted surge in nationwide bloodshed that has claimed more than 2,550 lives so far this year and sparked fears of Iraq slipping back into the all-out sectarian killings of 2006 and 2007.
The unrest has been driven principally by widespread anger among the Sunni Arab minority over claims of mistreatment at the hands of the Shia-led government and security forces, as well as by the civil war in neighbouring Syria.
Militants have “completely closed the gates of the Fallujah dam since Sunday morning,” Water Resources Minister Muhanad Al Saadi said in a statement.
The move blocks a major source of water for central and southern Iraq. The militants, who seized the dam several weeks ago, had previously cut the flow of water through the dam near the city of Fallujah, just a short drive west of Baghdad, but reopened it when water accumulated and caused the area to flood.AFP
