Syria Plunged Into Internet Blackout

Syria’s internet has been completely shutdown according to reports from web-monitoring services.

Internet intelligence authority, Renesys, reported on Thursday that sweeping outages in Syria had shut down 92 per cent of the country’s routed networks.

The report was confirmed later on Thursday by a second web-monitoring service, Akamai, who reported that 100 per cent of the networks were later shut down.

The group said that Syria has been “effectively off the internet” since 10.26am Coordinated Standard Time (12.26pm Damascus time) and released a chart showing web traffic in and out of the country dropping to zero to support its claim.

Online activists have accused Syria’s government – who has previously cut off internet access during major operations – of being responsible for the blackout, while Syria’s minister of information put it down to “terrorists”, claiming that engineers are working to repair the fault.

The Internet blackout coincides with fierce clashes in the Syrian capital of Damascus that have reportedly resulted in the closure of the main road to the airport since early Thursday morning, according to reports from the BBC. Locals at the scene said the government offensive was the biggest they had ever heard or seen.

Both Emirates Airline and Egypt Air have cancelled flights to Damascus due to the deteriorating security situation.