Unidentified miscreants bombed a power transmission tower in Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh, the Ministry of Electricity said in a statement.

The attack on Sunday sabotaged the tower that links the areas east of the provincial capital Mosul to Mosul Dam, and led to an almost complete power outage, Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying.

Accompanied by the Iraqi security forces, technical teams have rushed to the scene to repair the tower, the statement added.

“It seems that the series of explosions in the transmission towers are aimed at cutting off the national power grid among the provinces, stopping the projects of the Ministry of Electricity, and depleting its capabilities,” it said.

During the past few days, several power transmission towers were bombed in the provinces of Salahudin, Kirkuk, and Nineveh, as well as in al-Nebai and Tarmiyah areas north of capital Baghdad, which led to power outages in large areas.

Iraq has been witnessing a chronic power shortage since the US-led invasion in 2003, as the country’s power plants generate a total of 19,000 megawatts, far less than the actual demand of over 30,000 megawatts.

Earlier, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi held meetings to discuss the attacks, and directed the army to strengthen the protection of power transmission lines.