Turkish attacks curb maintenance of energy facilities in NE Syria
QAMIHSLI, Syria (North Press) – Maintenance teams are unable to repair the damage caused by Turkish airstrikes to oil, gas and energy facilities for fear of new attacks, an official of Energy Board in the city of Qamishli in northeast Syria told North Press on Thursday.
Since the start of its military escalation on areas of north and northeast Syria, Turkey has targeted infrastructure, including vital facilities such as hospitals, oil fields and fuel centers.
Ziyad Rostem, co-chair of Energy Board said that they stopped pumping gas to turbines for generating power, leading to a power outage in the cities, towns and villages of Qamishli since last night.
Since November 20, intense and wide spread aerial operation is being carried out by the Turkish forces against north and northeast Syria which has claimed tens of lives and destroyed facilities and infrastructure along the whole border strip from Aleppo northern countryside in the northwest up to Derik (al-Malikiyah) in the northeast.
“Currently, out of seven turbines in Rmelan oil company, only one is operating with a capacity of five megawatts for the facilities surrounding the turbine,” Rostem added.
“In the gas plant of Suwaydiya, there is only one turbine operating with a capacity of seven megawatts.”
He indicated that they fed only the vital facilities, such as hospitals and mills, saying, “We took a great risk because we fed it from Euphrates Dam.”
The co-chair pointed out that they will assess the damage and maintain the least damaged stations at first, “if repeated Turkish attacks stop.”
On Wednesday, the Turkish airstrikes hit oil fields, the only gas installation, grain silos and power station in the countryside of the city of Qamishli, northeast Syria.
After several attempts, the competent authorities were able to extinguish some of the fires that broke out as a result of the Turkish attacks on oil and gas stations, but some of them are still on fire until now.
On Thursday, co-chair of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), Abd Hamed al-Mehbash, said that Turkey targeted infrastructure to force people to flee and evacuate the region.
The region witnesses intermittent flights of Turkish warplanes and drones after they carried out successive raids on Wednesday.