Damascus plunges into darkness after mysterious blast hits key Syrian pipeline
This was the second pipeline blast in just a few days, coming after several recent explosions, including one that destroyed a Syrian army depot last month
A gas pipeline exploded near Syria’s capital, Damascus, on 30 September, taking three power facilities out of service and worsening electricity shortages in the latest of a string of mysterious blasts in the country.
“Syria has begun gradually restoring gas supplies to the Deir Ali power plant after an explosion on a pipeline supplying the Tishreen plant in Damascus Countryside forced several generating stations offline,” said Syria’s Energy Ministry on Thursday.
“Technical teams have started repressurizing the Arab Gas Pipeline between Adra and Deir Ali, paving the way for the Deir Ali plant to return to service in stages … Authorities have not yet established whether the incident resulted from a technical malfunction, a deliberate attack or sabotage,” it added.
Specialized teams will conduct an on-site inspection “after cooling operations are completed to determine the causes and circumstances precisely.”
The pipeline exploded in Eastern Ghouta, in the Damascus countryside.
Syria’s electricity firm said the explosion put the Deir Ali, Nasiriyah, and Tishreen plants out of service due to a lack of gas supplies.
Hours later, gunmen opened fire on a bus on Homs’s Misyaf Bridge. Seven were killed, and four were wounded. Sectarian attacks across Syria continue unabated. State news agency SANA claimed “unknown assailants” carried out the shooting.
The new gas pipeline blast is the second incident of its kind within three days. On 28 September, an explosion hit the pipeline between Al-Shoula and Deir Ezzor.
Fires erupted, and gas supplies from the Jbeissa plant to nearby stations were halted, two weeks after mass protests erupted across the country due to rising energy costs and deteriorating living conditions.
Several other blasts have hit the Syria recently.
A Syrian army weapons depot was destroyed due to an explosion in the southern Aleppo countryside on 21 September.
This was the fifth explosion in just three weeks.
On 1 September, at least five people were killed when munitions exploded while being transferred from a vehicle to a warehouse in the town of Binnish, in the northwestern governorate of Idlib.
A week later, on 9 September, at least 14 people were killed and 11 wounded when an explosion ripped through a temporary storage facility for weapons and explosive material in the city of Sarmada in Idlib.