Aug 5, 2018

Jihadists have attacked a high voltage power line serving several Iraqi provinces for the eighth time in two months, the government said on Sunday.

The electricity ministry said it had to once again repair the 400 kilovolt line between Kirkuk and Diyala after "terrorist attacks of sabotage... which caused the line to cut" on Thursday.

The damage was "the eighth attack on this line in two months", the ministry said in a statement, plunging Kirkuk, Salaheddin and Nineveh provinces into darkness.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared "victory" in the fight against the Islamic State group i

n December, after the jihadists had seized nearly a third of the country's territory in 2014.