Shafaq News- Basra

Earthlink Telecommunications, Iraq’s main internet service provider, announced on Tuesday a widespread outage in Basra province, clarifying that the reason is a “terrorist sabotage” targeting communications infrastructure.

In a statement, the company condemned “acts of vandalism” that damaged fiber-optic cables belonging to both the Ministry of Communications and Earthlink in Basra, attributing them to “outlaw groups.” The company also said the attacks involved cutting main internet supply cables across five separate routes simultaneously, leading to a complete service disruption for subscribers across the city.

Earthlink confirmed that its technical teams have begun repair work on the damaged streams and are working to restore service as quickly as possible, adding that the incidents appear to be systematic and have been formally documented and reported to local authorities, including the Basra Communications Directorate, the governor’s office, and relevant legal bodies.

The company called on provincial authorities and security agencies to launch an urgent investigation into what it described as criminal acts targeting a vital public service, warning of the direct impact of such outages on daily life, security, and Iraq’s ongoing digital and economic development.