AP: Derelict Power Plant Symbol of Iraq Woes

[PhilipShore]

Sunday, February 11, 2007

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/11/AR2007021100561.html


YOUSSIFIYAH, Iraq -- A giant smokestack looms over the green pastures and lazily flowing canals south of Baghdad. There is no smoke _ just the sense of lost economic potential and an uncertain future.

Iraqi unemployment is thought to be as high as 60 percent, and inflation above 50 percent. Reducing unemployment might help end the violence, but the violence cuts into any hope of getting the power plant rebuilt.

Mortars fired across the Euphrates river slam into the plant about twice daily, soldiers said. Last month a sniper killed a U.S. soldier. Days later a sniper's bullet tore through the helmet of a U.S. soldier on guard duty, grazing his head.

The violence of the surrounding area was made famous on the Internet last summer. The Youssifiyah power plant is in the background of a Web video showing the torture of two American soldiers kidnapped at a checkpoint nearby. Their burned bodies, one decapitated, were dropped at the plant's front gates.