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Lebanon deployed troops Wednesday to protect workers cutting down illegal power lines from enraged residents who lost their free electricity.
Technicians of the state-owned monopoly Electricite du Liban, or EDL, were scouring towns and villages as well as the capital Beirut, taking down illegal lines used to siphon power from the national grid, and handing out fines.
EDL is able to collect only about two-thirds of its bills, and waste and inefficiency lead to recurring breakdowns, frequently plunging parts of the country into darkness. Blackouts hit swathes of Lebanon earlier this month, provoking a public outcry.
