Electricity Minister: Iraq needs extra $2-$2.5 billion a year for power

An armed guard poses beside pallets of $100 bills in Baghdad, part of $12 billion in cash 'distributed' by the Coalition Provisional Authority in the year following the invastion. Much of the money has never been accounted for.

Iraq must lure between $2 billion and $2.5 billion per year in international aid and investment if it is to rebuild its devastated power sector, the country's electricity minister said on Wednesday...

Power cuts are a daily occurrence, especially in the capital Baghdad, as a result of nearly three decades of war damage, poor maintenance because of sanctions and due to sabotage.

"We rebuild and they destroy every day," Hasan said, referring to the sabotage attacks.

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