DAMASCUS, Syria, March 3, 2016 (UPI) — Officials were scrambling on Thursday to determine the cause of a nationwide blackout in Syria.
“Electricity has been cut across all provinces and teams are trying to determine the reason for this unexpected cut,” state news agency SANA reported. “Engineers and technicians are working on finding out why this sudden power cut happened in order to fix it promptly and restore electricity in the next few hours.”
Although electricity is available for only 2-4 hours a day in war-torn Syria — or not available at all — nationwide blackouts are rare.
The Syrian Telecommunication Establishment said some Internet services have been partially halted “as a result of sudden damage to one of the network hubs” and suggested repair teams are working to fix it.
Syria has been blighted by a complex civil war in which the Islamic State, the Syrian government and multiple Syrian rebel groups are fighting for control of territory. The Syrian government under President Bashar al-Assad has previously blamed blackouts on rebel attacks, while the United Nations has said that electricity has been restricted as a weapon of war.
A cease-fire in the Syrian civil war between the government and rebels that was brokered by the United States and Russia began midnight Friday.
