Blast Hits Gas Pipeline in Homs

An explosion ripped through a gas pipeline near the town of Rastan in Syria's flashpoint Homs province, the official news agency SANA reported Tuesday, blaming the overnight incident on "terrorists."

"An armed terrorist group in Homs bombed the gas pipeline near Rastan which caused explosions and fires in the pipeline at the point of bombing," the English-language report said, adding that "no human casualties were reported."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the explosion and cited an activist in Homs as asserting that "neither the revolutionaries nor the (army) deserters are behind the blast."

Homs, one of the main hubs of the unprecedented demonstrations against President Bashar Assad's regime, has been besieged by security forces and loyalist militias for months.

It has also seen violent clashes between regular troops and army deserters who defected after refusing orders to fire on unarmed protesters.

The Britain-based Observatory said the pipeline hit by the blast carried gas between the towns of Rastan and Talbisseh in Homs, a region seen as staunchly opposed to Assad's rule.

The explosion is the fourth reported attack on energy infrastructure since the outbreak of the pro-reform protest movement in mid-March.

On December 8, SANA said armed "terrorists" blew up an oil pipeline west of Homs, but the Local Coordination Committees, which organizes anti-regime protests accused Assad's government of deliberately destroying the pipeline to punish local residents for their dissent.

On July 13, activists said a gas pipeline exploded in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, home to Syria's oil and gas fields.

And on July 29, SANA reported an attack by a subversive group against an oil pipeline also near Homs.

According to an industry expert in Damascus, Syria's oil output has slumped to 120,000 barrels per day from 340,000 bpd before the unrest due to narrowing exports in line with sanctions against Assad's regime.