Syria has suffered its first major oil infrastructure attack since civil disturbances broke out nine months ago.
According to an Associated Press report, a pipeline near the city of Homs has been attacked, bringing oil flows to a halt.
The pipeline carries crude from the fields in the North-East of the country to Homs for refinining before onward pipeline transit to ports such as Baniyas for export.
Citinf state media and activists’ accounts, AP report that no casualties were reported and it was not clear who was behind the explosion.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the pipeline was “bombed,” while the state-run news agency SANA blamed terrorists.
An unnnamed government offices stated that a pipeline fire at the explosion site has been burning for four hours or more.
The regime’s bloody crackdown of protest continues, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reporting that the mutilated bodies of 34 civilians were dumped “in a square in the pro-regime neighbourhood of Al-Zahra on Monday.”