Power Cuts Leave Iraq in Dark on New Year’s Eve

Much of Iraq ushered in the new year under a near blackout today as a week-old power crunch worsened across huge sections of the northern and central parts of the country.

Baghdad’s already sporadic electrical power supply was cut to about an hour Saturday, causing a legion of private generators to roar steadily and dampening the spirits of millions of Iraqis preparing for New Year’s Eve, traditionally a joyous time of fireworks, family gatherings and public outings.

“I filled the water tanks,” said Firyal Fadil Khafaji, 40, a biology professor at Baghdad University. “Now we are trying to fill up the generator with gasoline because we are going to have a long night.”

Around the country, violence continued to flare Saturday after a brief lull that followed the parliamentary elections Dec. 15. Attacks left at least 24 Iraqis dead, including five members of a family slain in an apparent sectarian assault south of Baghdad.

The power outages added to the building frustration over last week’s steep increase in gasoline prices. Baghdad residents waited up to three hours in lines Saturday to get fuel, apparently prompted by a shortage and fear of further cuts in subsidies.

As is customary, Baghdad residents flocked to outdoor markets for gifts and party supplies. But they braced for a night without light or heat with temperatures in the 40s.

“We are doing our best to clean the house without hot water,” said medical assistant Diaa Hammed Doulimi, who was preparing to receive his parents for New Year’s Eve at his home in middle-class west Baghdad.

“I have a very small generator that I turn on for two hours, as I can’t afford to turn it on for more,” Doulimi said. “I guess we’re going to have to eat in the dark tonight.”

The causes of the power shortage were disputed. Central government officials blamed foul weather in the southern ports, but local power officials said strikes and threats against truckers shut down the refinery and generation plant at Baiji, 125 miles north of Baghdad.

“Our plant completely stopped on Thursday because the truck drivers failed to supply us,” said an official at the plant, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Some of them received threats from insurgents, which made them stop their supplies to us.”

Members of Iraq’s Sunni Arab minority, favored under Saddam Hussein’s regime, have been waging a guerrilla war against the U.S. military and the Shiite-led government. Their tactics have included incessant attacks on the energy industry.

The interim government responded to the power crisis by sending Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr Uloum on a forced vacation. Uloum had threatened to resign if the government didn’t rescind the price increases.

Ahmad Chalabi, the controversial deputy prime minister who has been in and out of U.S. favor, was named interim oil minister. Chalabi has won praise from U.S. and Iraqi officials for his work as head of a government panel in charge of safeguarding energy infrastructure. He also briefly served as acting oil minister during the formation of the current government. In the December elections, however, Chalabi’s political alliance failed to get enough votes to win a seat.

As the government attempted to address the energy shortage, a rash of killings marred the last day of the year.

Unknown gunmen raided a house near Iskandariya, 30 miles south of Baghdad, killing five members of a Sunni Arab family, Iraqi authorities said. The killings came after an even deadlier assault on a Shiite family Wednesday night in nearby Latifiya in which gunmen stormed a home and killed more than a dozen people, witnesses said.

Both attacks took place in a poor, densely populated agricultural district south of Baghdad called the “triangle of death” because of the violence and banditry that has pervaded the area.

In the city of Khalis, 40 miles north of Baghdad, a bomb exploded about 10 a.m. Saturday, killing five people. Police said the attack appeared to target the local headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic Party, one of the main Sunni political groups.

A roadside bomb exploded near the Engineering College of Mustansiriya in Baghdad just after 9 a.m., killing two Iraqi police officers and injuring six people. Another roadside bomb in Baghdad killed five policemen, and a bomb targeting a convoy at a crossroad north of Baghdad killed two policemen and two civilians, authorities said.

At 10 p.m., a mortar round fell on a house in central Baghdad, killing a man and his son. A policeman was shot to death in the Sadr City neighborhood.

Authorities also found five bodies in a stream about 30 miles southeast of Baghdad and one in a deserted area of Madaen, south of Baghdad.

Also Saturday, a U.S. soldier died of wounds inflicted by a mortar attack in Baghdad, the military said. That put the American military death toll for the year at 842 -- four short of 2004’s total.

The bloodshed and power outages all but drowned out U.S. officials’ efforts to end the year on an upbeat note.

Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad issued a statement Saturday ticking off accomplishments for the year, such as expanding political participation and “stimulating growth in key economic sectors.” Khalilzad gave a modestly rosy assessment of Iraq’s economy, which grew at a rate of 3% to 4% in 2005.

He said the United States and Iraq would work together in 2006 to shift resources from “unproductive subsidies to productive uses that enable Iraqis to earn livelihoods for their families.”

Times staff writers Borzou Daragahi, Cesar Ahmed, Saif Rasheed and Raheem Salman and special correspondent Asmaa Waguih in Baghdad and a special correspondent in Kirkuk contributed to this report.