The Khor Mor gas field is expected to restart operating days after a drone attack harmed the important energy facility. The facility is a key part of the energy grid that enables electricity in the Kurdistan Region of Northern Iraq. Leaders in the region, as well as the US, the UN, and others, have condemned the attack.
The gas field has been targeted at least a dozen times in the past, usually by kamikaze drones. Iranian-backed militias are alleged to be behind the attacks.
According to Arab News, “Iraq’s Kurdistan region has agreed with the company operating the Khor Mor gas field to restart production within hours to restore electricity, Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on Saturday, days after the field was hit in an attack.”
However, the Kurdish media outlet Rudaw noted that” shipments of remaining liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stored inside the Khor Mor gas field began moving to cities across the Kurdistan Region on Saturday, as maintenance teams continue repairs following a drone attack that halted production three days earlier.”
The report said that the LPG tanks were being emptied, but that the plant had “not yet resumed operations. Eight tankers departed the facility on Saturday carrying full loads of LPG to various destinations across the Kurdistan Region, Rudaw’s Arkan Ali reported from the site.”
Appears to have been a rocket attack
The gas field is one of the largest in the region, and it supplies fuel for electricity. It was attacked on Thursday. It appears to have been a rocket attack. The attack led “to production shutdown and extensive power cuts. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and authorities have not said who was behind the attack,” Arab News noted.
“I have urged (Iraqi) Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani to hold the perpetrators of this attack accountable to the full extent of the law, whomever they may be and wherever they are,” Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said.
The attack comes as Iraqi politicians jockey for control of the country after elections in early November. Several candidates have recently bowed out of a push to become Prime Minister.
The pro-Iranian Shi’ite parties usually control the Prime Minister’s Office of Iraq, while Kurds have been the president of Iraq since 2005, and Sunnis hold the Speaker of Parliament role.
The Kurdistan Region is autonomous and a key partner of the US and the US-led Coalition against ISIS. Its Peshmerga helped defeat ISIS. The area is also a center of security and economic success in Iraq. It requires energy supplies to keep that success moving forward. The Iranian-backed militias have targeted the region in the past.
US Envoy to Iraq Mark Savaya wrote on social media over the weekend that “the world views Iraq as a country capable of playing a larger and more influential role in the region, provided that the issue of weapons outside state control is fully resolved and the prestige of official institutions is protected.”
He added that “no economy can grow, and no international partnership can succeed, in an environment where politics is intertwined with unofficial power. Iraq now has a historic opportunity to close this chapter and reinforce its image as a state built on the rule of law, not the power of weapons.”
He discusses the importance of the separation of powers and notes that “Iraq stands at a critical crossroads. It can move toward independent institutions capable of enforcing the law and attracting investment, or fall back into the cycle of complexity that has burdened everyone.”