Syria: Oil pipeline explosion sabotage by terrorist group
A Syrian performer hangs from hooks while holding his national flag in front of a giant picture of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as a show of endurance during a pro-regime rally in Damascus on December 2, 2011. Europe and the United States tightened economic sanctions on Syria, ramping up international pressure as the UN said more than 4,000 people had died in a crackdown on dissidents.
An explosion hit a major Syrian oil pipeline near the restive city of Homs on Thursday in an attack the state-run news agency characterized as an act of sabotage by a terrorist group.
No casualties from the explosion were reported and it was not clear who set the pipeline ablaze, though the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the pipeline was bombed. A government official said the blast caused a fire to burn for four hours.
"An armed terrorist group on Thursday committed an act of sabotage," the state-run SANA news agency said.
The activist group said the blast happened at Tal al-Shor, west of the violence-stricken city of Homs in a region that has been “besieged by security forces and loyalist militias” for months, the BBC reported.
More from GlobalPost: Up to 50 killed in Homs, dozens of bodies dumped on streets
Two similar attacks on Syria’s oil pipelines occurred in July and it is still not known who was behind them.
More from GlobalPost: 'Explosion' damages Syrian gas pipeline, cause unknown
The Syrian regime has attempted to quell a 9-month-old government uprising but the initially-peaceful protests have increasingly turned to violence. President Bashar al-Assad said in a rare interview with ABC's Barbara Walters that he never gave the command for the bloody crackdowns that have killed more than 4,000 people since March.
"I did my best to protect the people," Assad told Walters in Damascus. "You feel sorry for the life that has been lost, but you don't feel guilty when you don't kill people."
Assad skirted several questions and denied claims Walters brought against him regarding his involvement in the violence against his people.
"No government in the world (kills) its people unless it is led by a crazy person.”
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