SANA Says 'Terrorists' Blow Up Syrian Oil Pipeline

Armed "terrorists" have blown up an oil pipeline west of the flashpoint Syrian city of Homs, the official SANA news agency reported on Thursday.

"An armed terrorist group targeted in a sabotage operation the pipeline of Tal al-Shor, west of Homs," Syria's third-largest city, SANA said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based activist network, also reported the explosion of "an oil pipeline in Homs which transports crude to the (central) city's refinery from eastern Syria."

It gave no cause for the blast.

The explosion is the third reported attack on energy infrastructure since the outbreak of an unprecedented protest movement against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in mid-March.

On July 13, activists said a gas pipeline exploded in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, home to Syria's oil and gas fields.

And on July 29, SANA reported an attack by a subversive group against an oil pipeline near Homs.

According to an industry expert in Damascus, Syria's oil output has slumped to 120,000 barrels per day from 340,000 bpd before the unrest due to narrowing exports in line with sanctions against Assad's regime.

The United Nations estimates more than 4,000 people have been killed since mid-March in the regime crackdown's on dissent.

Damascus blames the unrest on "armed terrorist groups" and has unleashed military operations against border towns and protest hubs.