Three Gas Stations in Syria Come Under Artillery Fire - Reports

Three gas stations in the Syrian province of Homs were targeted by militants’ artillery shelling and a fire started in two of them, state television reported on Tuesday.

The Ikhbariya broadcaster reported that emergency services had managed to contain the fire at the Al Rayan station. It said the sound of the shelling could be heard in the cities of Latakia and Homs.

"Terrorists and their supporters attacked the oil sector and its facilities, including the Ebla gas plant, the South Central Gas Factory, al-Rayyan gas station and Homs refinery", Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Ghanem confirmed, later in the day, adding that local firefighters and the civil defense department managed to put out the fire caused by the shelling.

The situation in the country remains tense, as the army is clashing with militants in Idlib - the last stronghold of terrorists in Syria. The province is partially controlled by various factions of jihadists, including the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham* terror group.

A Turkish military convoy of tanks and armoured vehicles passes through the Syrian town of Dana, east of the Turkish-Syrian border in the northwestern Syrian Idlib province, on February 2, 2020.

© AFP 2023 / Aaref Watad

The Syrian Army recently launched a major offensive after militants repeatedly violated the ceasefire. However, this has resulted in threats from Ankara, which claimed that the actions of Damascus pose a danger to the situation in the region after clashes led to the deaths of six Turkish servicemen.

 

Turkey sent its armed forces to the Syrian province, stating that its troops had "hit 54 targets in Idlib and neutralised 76 Syrian soldiers".

*Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, also known as Jabhat al-Nusra, is a terrorist group banned in Russia