At Least 7 Civilians Killed by Syrian Forces in Homs
Syrian security forces on Thursday killed at least seven civilians including a woman in an assault on the restive central city of Homs, activists said.
The deaths occurred as the security forces used sniper fire and "arbitrary" shelling during raids on three districts of the city, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement sent to Agence France Presse.
Meanwhile, state media reported Thursday that armed "terrorists" blew up an oil pipeline west of Homs, but an anti-regime activist group said the government was behind the blast.
"An armed terrorist group targeted in a sabotage operation the pipeline of Tal al-Shor, west of Homs," Syria's third-largest city, said the official news agency SANA.
The Observatory also reported the explosion of "an oil pipeline in Homs which transports crude to the (central) city's refinery from eastern Syria."
It gave no cause for the blast.
But the Local Coordination Committees, which organizes protests against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, accused his government of deliberately destroying the pipeline, which serves a region seen as staunchly opposed to his rule.
Homs, one of the main hubs of the unprecedented demonstrations against Assad's regime, has been besieged by security forces and loyalist militias for more than two months.
Footage posted on video-sharing website YouTube shows huge flames burning above the site of a pipeline said to be the one near Homs, with massive clouds of black smoke billowing out overhead.
The explosion is the third reported attack on energy infrastructure since the outbreak of the pro-reform protest movement in mid-March.
On July 13, activists said a gas pipeline exploded in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, home to Syria's oil and gas fields.
And on July 29, SANA reported an attack by a subversive group against an oil pipeline 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.
The United Nations estimates more than 4,000 people have been killed since mid-March in the regime crackdown's on dissent.
Damascus blames the unrest on "armed terrorist groups" and has unleashed military operations against border towns and protest hubs.
Source: Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://naharnet.com/stories/en/22666 |