BEIRUT, Lebanon — Activists in Syria reported on Friday that Internet connections were cut for a second successive day, fanning speculation among opponents of President Bashar al-Assad about the government’s intentions in coming days.
But some supporters of the rebels seeking Mr. Assad’s overthrow in the country’s bloody civil war said that they could bypass the blackout on Internet servers by using satellite communications.
“Generally speaking, in Idlib we haven’t had an Internet connection or working landlines since the very beginning of the uprising,” said Ahmad Kadour an activist in the northern province of Idlib. “Right now, the Internet is not working in any part of Syria, but most activists use satellite Internet connections and own satellite phones so all is well. This operation won’t affect activists’ work much.”
On Thursday, Syria lost two major links with the outside world as the largest commercial airport in the capital canceled flights because of fighting nearby and Internet access disappeared across the country, perhaps signaling an impending escalation by the government against the uprising.
The disruption at the airport, Damascus International — a crucial conduit for supplies, money and weapons for the government — was a measure of how intense the conflict has become around the capital in recent weeks. As security forces launched a major counteroffensive against rebels nearby, the government’s willingness to carry out military operations in the area suggested that it was feeling the pressure of rebel advances.
News reports from Syria on Friday offered confused accounts of the fighting, quoting activists as saying that the main road to the Damascus airport had reopened after intense clashes in the early hours in which rebel forces destroyed government vehicles.
A reporter for The Associated Press said Damascus was largely quiet, although there were sounds of fighting in the suburbs — a report that seemed corroborated by a Reuters dispatch quoting Damascus residents as saying black smoke could be seen from the east and south of the city while the sound of shelling from those areas was constant.
Reuters also said government forces used airstrikes against rebel targets near the road leading to the airport, while a regional flight operator said civilian flights were not landing there for the second day.
Keeping the airport open helped the government project a sense of normalcy, and interrupting service creates problems, activists said, because the large planes needed for supplies cannot land at smaller military airports.
On Thursday, two companies that monitor Internet traffic, Arbor Networks and Akamai, released data demonstrating that the Internet went out across the country around 10 a.m. The Internet has been a strategic tool of the uprising and the government alike, allowing activists to organize and communicate but also exposing them to surveillance. Videos uploaded by both sides have made the conflict extraordinarily visible to the outside world.
Rebels have put the government under increasing pressure in recent weeks, taking oil fields in eastern Syria and a major air base near Aleppo, and demonstrating their growing ability to shoot down aircraft.
On Thursday, several airlines said they had halted flights to Damascus. An official at EgyptAir said it had indefinitely suspended flights because of the security situation there, though morning flights to the northern city of Aleppo were operating.
“They’ve turned it into a military airport lately,” said Abdul Rahman al-Barra, 27, an activist in the Damascus suburbs, adding that rebels had recently captured 40 pro-government militiamen in ambushes on the airport road. “Helicopters and warplanes land there, and Russian and Iranian experts travel through it.”
Speaking over Skype, which he said he was using with a satellite connection, Mr. Barra said fighters with the Free Syrian Army, the loosely knit rebel umbrella group, were battling government forces about a mile from the airport. “It’s a hit-and-run kind of battle,” he said. “The Free Syrian Army is using mortar shells without getting close to the airport, which the regime is firmly gripping now.”
Syrian Internet Connections Cut For Second Day http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-89EKCgBk8MZdE.gif
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق