Daesh blows up central Syrian gas field near Palmyra: Monitor
The Daesh terrorist group has carried out massive bomb attacks against a key gas field in central Syria, setting off a minor earthquake in the nearby city of Palmyra, a monitoring group says.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, said there were three huge blasts conducted by Daesh at the Shaer gas field on Monday.
The gas field -- one of the biggest in Homs province -- has been the scene of heavy clashes between Daesh elements and Syrian government forces. The terrorists captured the gas field on May 5.
Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the SOHR, said Daesh was thought to have blown up several of Shaer's pumping stations. He gave no details about possible casualties.
The blasts reportedly even shook the ancient city Palmyra, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of Shaer.
Syrian state news agency SANA said on Monday evening that government forces had recaptured a hilltop just west of the gas field. It did not mention the explosions.
Daesh captured the ruins of Palymra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the adjacent modern city in May 2015, destroying ancient monuments there, including the 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel and the iconic Arch of Triumph.
The Syrian army, backed by volunteer forces and Russian air cover, wrested back control of Palmyra on March 27 following four weeks of military operations against Daesh.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which has also displaced over half of the Arab country’s pre-war population of about 23 million.
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