Syria's War

Fuel theft cited in Baniyas-Homs leak as gas export line in Hasakah catches fire.

Two pipelines carrying gas and oil products were damaged in separate incidents in Syria, state media reported, the latest disruptions to the country’s energy infrastructure following a series of suspected sabotage attacks.

The state-owned Syrian Petroleum Company announced the damage on Thursday, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA). The incidents add to a number of attacks on Syria’s oil and gas network in recent months, as the government tries to revive its energy sector.

An explosion struck the Jbessa gas pipeline in southern Hasakah province in the late afternoon, hours after damage to a pipeline transporting oil products from the coastal city of Baniyas to Homs caused a fuel leak.

The company said the gas pipeline had been targeted in a “sabotage attack”, according to SANA.

Neither SANA nor the company named a suspect or group responsible for the attacks.

Repairs under way

Oday al-Satouf, head of the company’s media office, told SANA that a hole was found in the Baniyas-Homs pipeline in the Hadida area, west of Homs. Crews isolated the affected stretch and secured the surrounding area, he said, closing valves on either side of the damaged section. Repairs have begun, while other teams monitor the area for safety. State media said the leak was believed to be linked to an attempted fuel theft.

Al-Satouf said gas would continue to reach power stations through alternative arrangements, and that domestic gas supplies were unaffected, according to SANA.

A string of incidents

More than a week ago, the company said an oil pipeline near Tal Hamis in the northeastern province of Hasakah was damaged in a sabotage attack. It added that authorities had arrested those responsible.

In late September, a fire broke out on a gas pipeline between al-Shoula and Deir Az Zor in the east, halting gas flows from the Jbessa plant to power stations, SANA reported. Hisham al-Saleh, a gas sector official at the company, said gas pressure in the area fell as crews worked to extinguish the blaze.

Syria has been working to restore its energy infrastructure and increase domestic oil production. That includes resuming operations at oil fields in Hasakah to supply refineries in Homs and Baniyas. In January, the petroleum company announced plans to transport crude from recently recovered fields to the two refineries as part of efforts to revive the sector.

Five Syrians and one Lebanese wounded in latest Israeli attack, officials say.

An Israeli drone attack has wounded six people in Lebanon’s Hermel district, close to the Syrian border, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

The ministry said on Friday that the six wounded included five Syrian nationals, two of them women, and one Lebanese.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that the drone attack targeted a car.

It added the area has largely been spared such attacks since an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire was agreed in June.

Israel’s military claimed it struck “a Syrian terrorist” who “operated under the direction of the Iranian regime”, alleging that the man “planned and advanced attacks” against Israeli forces in Syria’s southern territory.

Since the ouster of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes against Syria. It has sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan since 1974, and has carried out repeated incursions deeper into Syrian territory, sometimes seizing residents.

Israel has also continued to attack Lebanon since a ceasefire with Hezbollah was agreed in June.

It has vowed to keep troops in so-called security zones along its border in both Syria and Lebanon.

Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa told the UN General Assembly last month: “We reject Israeli attempts to impose a fait accompli. We reject their aggressions, which undermine peace and security.”

He said Israel had carried out “500 air strikes, more than 1,200 incursions and 300 detentions” in Syria.

He also called for Israeli withdrawal from Syrian territory and for the international community to commit to a 1974 agreement that created a UN-supervised separation zone between Israeli and Syrian forces.