Turkish bombing leaves 45 Syrian villages without electricity for a month
TEL TAMR, Syria (North Press) – Fahed Sama’ila, co-chair of the Tel Tamr Electricity Center in the Autonomous Administration, said on Thursday that dozens of villages located on the Zargan (Abu Rasin) line, north of Hasakah, northeastern Syria, have been without electricity for more than a month due to the Turkish bombing.
Since the beginning of August, Turkish forces have escalated their bombardment with heavy weapons on the towns of Tel Tamr and Zargan and the surrounding countryside, causing extensive damage to power lines and vital, service and educational facilities.
The co-chair stated that the July 29 Turkish bombing of the villages of the Zargan line, located between the towns of Tel Tamr and Zargan, took the 20 kilovolt line out of service.
“The number of villages on this line is 45, in addition to the town of Zargan; they do not have electricity,” he added.
Electricity workers are unable to carry out maintenance work due to the continued Turkish bombardment of the area, according to Sama’ila.
The co-chair of the Electricity Center indicated that, about three weeks ago, they conducted a census of the affected sites, which extended over a length of 400 meters and included four medium tension poles in addition to the cables.
“However, Zargan line has witnessed intense bombing during the past three weeks, and we do not know whether there are new damages or not, due to the inability of our maintenance workshops to reach those areas so far,” he added.
On August 19, Turkish forces targeted the town of Zargan with over 50 shells, which resulted in significant damage to electricity lines and poles.
On August 17, Turkish forces targeted the vicinity of the electricity transmission station, north of Tel Tamr, causing material damage.
Recently, the town of Tel Tamr witnessed a power outage that lasted for three days after major damage was done to the electricity cables and towers near the village of Tel Karabet, northwest of the town of Tel Tamr, as a result of the Turkish bombing, before the maintenance workshops of the Tel Tamr Electricity Center carried out their maintenance in coordination with Russian forces.
Sama’ila stated that they are currently unable to maintain the damaged lines that supply the villages of Zargan countryside with electricity, until coordination with the Russian forces to accompany them to the work site in order to avoid the Turkish bombardment and return safely.