Syrian gas pipeline sabotage, causing complete power outage across Syria
Last night, Syria suffered a complete power outage for unknown reasons (other reports mention that this only affected Damascus and the surrounding regions). It was later announced by Syria’s Minister of Electricity Ghasan Al Zamel that a pipeline was targeted an explosive device at Deir Ali Power Plant, that caused the blackout.
“There was a significant direct drop in gas pressure, which led to the failure at the Deir Ali power station… as a result of an attack on the gas line,” Minister of Electricity Ghassan al-Zamil told SANA, a Syrian TV channel late on Friday, but did not have much details about the attack.
Power returned to Damascus around an hour later, after several power stations attempts to compensate for the shutdown at Deir Ali while repair was ongoing, and gradually to the rest of the provinces.
The struck main gas pipeline is in southern Damascus, near Deir Ali power plant. However, questions are being asked about how did the attackers knew that there is a gas pipeline that is buried 2 meters in the ground at that specific location.
As you can see in the photos, the explosion created a massive crater thats probably around 10 meters deep from our estimation. The gas pipeline is clearly hidden within the ground.
The last time a gas pipeline was targeted was in August 2020, also in the outskirt of the capital city, that also triggered outage across Syria.
So far, no groups or entities had claimed responsibility for the attack.
There are some conspiracy being raised that this attack could be related to the Iranian oil that is currently being transported into Lebanon.
Claire Jungman
@claire_jungman
#Iranian tanker #FAXON departed #Syria after delivering its oil that was brought to #Lebanon by trucks. Now, we see a foreign-flagged tanker on the #Baniyas SBM delivering crude oil it picked up from Sirri Island, Iran. This tanker is spoofing off of #Cyprus. #UANIShipping#OOTT
According to various reports, the Iranian oil is arranged/ordered by the Hezbollah against US-led international sanctions against Iran. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV reported 80 x oil trucks with 4 million litres of diesel has crossed the Lebanon border from Syria, from where a tanker is docked.
This is an attempt to go around the sanctions on Iran without embroiling Lebanon into the geopolitical standoff.
It is unknown if the attack has anything to do with Israel, or United States, or could it be one of the Syrian rebel guerrila, a terrorist group or could it be ISIS.
But if Iran is involved in the equation, and the attack was meant to be a punitive action against Syria role in this Hezbollah-Iran oil heist – then the culprit for the pipeline attack could be pointed to Israel or the United States.
But maybe, this are two separate incident, and perhaps ISIS is still alive and well? No one knows now.