Baghdad - North-eastern Iraq was shrouded in darkness overnight in the wake of a power cut that was caused by a car bomb blast while US Defence Secretary Robert Gates was to hold more talks in Baghdad, media reports said Monday. "A car bomb blast on Sunday near the Mosul power plant severed cables of power pylons, disrupting supplies from the plant to the power network in the north-east," the spokesman for the Ministry of Electricity, Aziz Sultan, told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.
The Mosul power plant in Ninenveh province supplies the network with 400 megawatts, according to the official.
The Northern Iraqi provinces of Nineveh and Salahaddin were the scene of deadly attacks on Sunday that left up to 53 people dead.
The highest death toll on Sunday was in Yathrip on the outskirts of Balad, 80 kilometres north of Baghdad. A suicide truck bomber targeted a checkpoint jointly manned by Iraqi police and members of tribal forces, known as Awakening Councils, killing 34 people and injuring 37, police said.
A nearby car market and shops were destroyed.
The spate of attacks occurred as Gates arrived in Baghdad Sunday evening and held talks with top US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus.
Gates also met Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other politicians.
Gates said progress was made towards reconciliation but he wanted to discuss with Iraqi leaders "what the prospects are for further success in the next couple of months."
Iraqi leaders still faced hard choices on how to achieve stability, Gates said.
Before his arrival, the US military revealed key documents it said was seized during security operations.
The US military spokesman, Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, said the documents showed the al-Qaeda terrorist network had been significantly weakened by the US-backed Sunni Arab Awakening Councils.
But the group was by no means defeated, Smith said.
