Four power plants were hit in the western part of the country
Sunday’s attack on four power plants in the northwestern US state of Washington raised fears of a targeted campaign by far-right groups after authorities issued earlier federal warnings.
New Jersey Power Plant (Description).
AFP
More than 14,000 homes were without power on Christmas Day after four power plants broke down in Pierce County, a southern suburb of Seattle, local police said.
An investigation has been launched, but no suspects have been arrested on Sunday, police said in a press release, confirming that they could not yet know whether it was a coordinated attack or not. However, police said they are aware of similar incidents in Washington state, Oregon (northwest), and North Carolina (southeast).
According to a press release, federal police warned Tacoma Public Utilities, owner of the two vandalized infrastructures, of threats against the electrical network in early December. Militants from violent extremist groups “have developed credible and targeted plans to attack electricity infrastructure from at least 2020,” the Department of Homeland Security was quoted by US media last January.
causing “public confusion”.
In early December, in Moore County, North Carolina, two electrical transformers were shot, leaving about 45,000 homes and businesses in the dark. The attack came a year after the indictment in the same state of five people who were allegedly members of white supremacist and neo-Nazi chat groups accused of plotting attacks on power plants.
They sought to cause “public confusion,” according to the indictment, “for the purpose of creating a state centered on the white race.” In Ohio (in the north), three men linked to the neo-Nazi movement pleaded guilty in February to using guns and explosives to damage several power plants in various locations.
AFP
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