Fatal car bombing in Baghdad shows danger faced by contractors

By JIM KRANE Associated Press

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

Baghdad, Iraq -- The deadly car bombing of a convoy of General Electric contractors Monday dramatizes the dangerous challenge the United States faces as it struggles to revive Iraq's beleaguered power supply.

Three GE employees and two bodyguards were killed, along with eight Iraqis, in the attack in central Baghdad.

Boosting the capacity of Iraq's electrical grid has been a top priority of the U.S.-led occupation, which is scrambling to show Iraqis the occupation can improve their lives.

For that reason, power contractors increasingly find themselves in the gun sights of anti-U.S. guerrillas, who sabotage the improvements as quickly as the occupiers can fix them.

The attacks have sent contractors scurrying from Iraq. They've slowed improvements and caused the U.S.-led coalition to fall short of its goal of delivering 6,000 megawatts of consistent power in June. Power generation currently hovers at around 4,400 megawatts.

The workers killed Monday are the latest victims in a spate of such killings. Last month, gunmen ambushed Russian electrical engineers at Musayyib, kidnapping two and killing one. Rebels also ambushed Russian technicians heading to a Baghdad power plant last month, killing two and an Iraqi. The violence prompted Moscow-based Interenergoservis to pull out its 241 employees.

And in December, a South Korean electrical contractor withdrew its 60 power-line repairmen after gunmen killed two of its engineers and wounded two others near the northern city of Tikrit.

GE said Monday that it has no plans to pull its workers out of the country.

One senior U.S. official who handles reconstruction projects in Iraq said Monday's attack "sent chills down my spine."

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Iraqis' patience with daily blackouts is thinner this summer since the Americans have had a year to fix the grid.

Even maintaining 4,000 megawatts of generating capacity was "a minor miracle" amid incessant sabotage, he said. Guerrillas have also toppled hundreds of pylons and blown up supply pipelines.

Most of Baghdad's 5 million residents now put up with two hours of power for every four hours of blackout. Before the war, Baghdad residents enjoyed about 20 hours of electricity a day.