US: Attack on transformers rekindles fears of targeted far-right propaganda

Four transformers were attacked in the northwestern US state of Washington on Sunday, raising fears of a targeted campaign by far-right groups after authorities issued earlier federal warnings.

Damage to infrastructure in Pierce County, a southern suburb of Seattle, left more than 14,000 homes without power on Christmas Day, 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 insisted they were aware of similar incidents in Washington state, Oregon (northwest) and North Carolina (southeast).

Federal police were also alerted in early December of threats against the electrical network of Tacoma Public Utilities, the owner of the two vandalized infrastructures, according to a press release.

Militants from violent extremist groups “have developed credible and targeted plans to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement cited by US media last January.

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 comes a year after five men were indicted in the same state as members of white supremacist and neo-Nazi chat groups accused of plotting attacks on power infrastructure.

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.