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Islamic State Uses Syria’s Biggest Dam As A Weapon

Islamic State militants are sheltering their senior officials and high-value prisoners at Syria’s biggest dam by Lake Assad on the Euphrates, believing that U.S. forces will not go near them in fear of unleashing a giant flood that could potentially kill thousands. High-value prisoners and senior Islamic State officials are being held at the Tabqa Dam, safe in the knowledge that there are no ground troops capable of dislodging them before they unleash a deluge that could “mean that there’s no electricity for all of eastern Syria”, according to Virginia Tech associate professor Ariel Ahram. According to professor Ahram, who is an expert on security and development on Middle Eastern dams: “That’s an ecological disaster for Iraq and a humanitarian catastrophe for Syria.” The Australian reports: The Tabqa Dam is 40km west of Raqqa, Islamic State’s Syrian headquarters, and has been under the group’s control since 2013. Created with Russian help in the 1970s, it controls the flow of the Euphrates River into southeastern Syria and northern Iraq. The construction of the dam, 60m tall and roughly 5km long, created Lake Assad, which is about 80km long and Syria’s largest water reservoir. Dams in arid regions of Iraq and Syria represent power. [...]