Hey, you’ll have to read this 2007 report on The Most Dangerous Dam in the World, (h/t Vlad) for a better context, on exactly the state of the dam in question. It’s already highly unstable.
Islamic State grabs Iraqi dam and oilfield in victory over Kurds
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Islamic State fighters seized control of Iraq’s biggest dam, an oilfield and three more towns on Sunday after inflicting their first major defeat on Kurdish forces since sweeping across much of northern Iraq in June.
Capture of the electricity-generating Mosul Dam, after an offensive of barely 24 hours, could give the Sunni militants the ability to flood major Iraqi cities or withhold water from farms, raising the stakes in their bid to topple Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s Shi’ite-led government.
“The terrorist gangs of the Islamic State have taken control of Mosul Dam after the withdrawal of Kurdish forces without a fight,” said Iraqi state television.
But a Kurdish official in Washington told Reuters the dam was still under the control of Kurdish “peshmerga” troops, although he said towns around the dam had fallen to Islamic State forces.
“The situation has taken a turn for the worse over the weekend,” said Karwan Zebari, an official with the Kurdistan Regional Government’s office in Washington.
