Shafaq News – Baghdad

On Tuesday, Iraq’s Minister of Electricity, Ziyad Ali Fadel, ordered the formation of an investigative committee into the nationwide blackout that struck the country.

The outage affected Basra, most cities in southern and central Iraq, and the capital, Baghdad, following a sudden breakdown in the electricity network that left these areas without power for extended periods.

According to a document by the ministry, the committee will be headed by Yahya Abbas Jaber, Director General of the Operations and Control Department, with membership including Khaled Walid Hadi, Director General of the Legal Department, and Mohammed Shawkat Jassim, Deputy Director General for Technical Affairs in Transmission and Distribution.

The panel is tasked with investigating the total collapse of the national power grid on August 11, 2025, and reporting back within the given timeframe.

In Kirkuk, a source at the Northern Electricity Company said on Monday evening that efforts were ongoing to restart the province’s two main transformer stations (132 kV and 400 kV) after the nationwide blackout.

The source added that restoring these stations would enable a gradual return of power to Kirkuk in the coming hours, with priority given to hospitals and vital public service projects before residential areas.