Terroristas blow up Syrian oil pipeline

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Terroristas blow up Syrian oil pipeline

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Armed terrorists have blown up an oil pipeline west of the flashpoint Syrian city of Homs.

08 December,2011 07:45 pm

However, an anti-regime 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, Syrias third-largest city, said the official news agency SANA.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based activist network, also reported the explosion of an oil pipeline in Homs which transports crude to the (central) citys refinery from eastern Syria.It gave no cause for the blast.But the Local Coordination Committees, which organises protests against President Bashar al-Assads 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 Assads 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 Ezzor, home to Syrias 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, Syrias 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 Assads regime.The United Nations estimates more than 4,000 people have been killed since mid-March in the regime crackdowns on dissent.Damascus blames the unrest on armed terrorist groups and has unleashed military operations against border towns and protest hubs.