MOSCOW, October 7 (RIA Novosti) - Islamic State (IS) militants are cutting off water supplies to villages in northern Iraq in an attempt to assume control of Iraq's water infrastructure, The Washington Post stated Tuesday.
"We are in a conflict with the Islamic State over water in Iraq. They want to control it at any price. They can threaten many parts of the country if they control the water," Abdul Majid Satar, the minister of agriculture and water resources for the Kurdistan Regional Government, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
According to The Washington Post, this April IS militants closed the gates of the Fallujah dam in Iraq's western Anbar Province in order to slow the water flowing into the Shiite-dominated southern provinces.
The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq, declaring a caliphate on the territories over which it had control.
