Pro-regime militias stole electricity cables and power generators from a number of neighborhoods in eastern and western Aleppo.
Mahmood Abu al-Nour from the pro-regime neighborhood of al-Zahraa told Iqtissad that Assad thugs, shabeeha, had stolen power generators and other electricity equipment from the neighborhood.
Abu al-Nour mentioned that public electricity had become something like a dream, a thing of the past, adding that people relied on Ampere generators controlled by the regime’s popular committees.
The Minister of Electricity announced that 25 electricity generators had been put out of service by vandalism in different areas of Syria, the regime’s media reported on February 17.
Electricity equipment theft has affected various neighborhoods of western Aleppo including New Aleppo, al-Basil, Jamiyet Majlis al-Shaab, Jamiyet al-Zahraa and other places.
Local sources report that stolen cables and equipment from power generators and government buildings find their way to Tartous and Lattakia where they are recycled and sold.
An official source accused the security and military authorities of complicity in undermining Aleppo’s infrastructure by overlooking thugs stripping public buildings.
The source stressed that those who had taken to looting houses a few months ago, now have started looting official buildings and electricity equipment with impunity.
Hassan Hazori, a lecturer in the Faculty of Economics at Aleppo University, wrote on his official Facebook page that “the situation in Aleppo is going from bad to worse; the level of economic, private, and social security is dramatically decreasing as robberies that target public buildings and electricity equipment increase.”
He condemned the dismissive attitude adopted by the city officials in the face of what has been happening. According to estimates by the Ministry of Electricity, the damage done to the electricity industry in Syria since the middle of 2011, when the Syrian revolution started, has amounted to 800 billion Syrian pounds.
This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
