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Iraq's Ministry of Electricity announced a complete shutdown of the national power system on Wednesday, with every governorate in the country losing electricity after all transmission lines and generating stations went offline simultaneously, according to the ministry.
A spokesperson for the electricity ministry confirmed that the country's power network had shut down entirely, though the cause of the grid failure remained unclear amid the rapidly escalating regional conflict.
The blackout compounds what has already been a catastrophic week for Iraq, as the country finds itself caught in the crossfire of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran and retaliatory strikes by Tehran and its allied militias.
Fresh explosions were heard in the northern city of Erbil on Wednesday, according to an AFP journalist on the ground. Pro-Iranian armed groups, including the Saraya Awliya al-Dam (Blood Guardian Brigades), have claimed responsibility for recent attacks near Erbil, at the Al-Harir base, as well as at the American Victoria base in Baghdad.
Right after the blackout US Embassy in Baghdad issued an urgent directive on Wednesday telling American nationals to get out of the country without delay. "US citizens in Iraq are strongly encouraged to depart as soon as they are safely able to do so, and shelter in place until such time as conditions are safe to depart," the embassy said on X. "If safe to do so, Americans should leave Iraq now."
The State Department had already updated its travel advisory for Iraq on March 2 to reflect that non-emergency US government employees had been ordered to leave the country due to security concerns, with Iraq's advisory level remaining at its most severe, Level 4: Do Not Travel
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