Blackout...

Syria reports nationwide electricity outage

By Jason Hanna and Hamdi Alkhshali

The Syrian government reported a nationwide power outage on Thursday -- just the latest electricity problem in a country that has seen frequent outages during a five-year war between the regime, rebels and terror groups.

Electrical workers determined the cause and had begun restoring power to some places by late afternoon, the country's ministry of electricity said without detailing what had gone wrong.

It wasn't clear how many people were affected by Thursday's outage, as many cities outside of the government's control already weren't being served by the government-run power grid. The ISIS terror group and other militants groups control large parts of the country, and many cities in these areas use fuel-powered generators for electricity.

In a video posted online late Thursday afternoon, an official with Syria's electricity ministry said efforts to relaunch power service could take two to 12 hours.

Shortly before the outage was reported, the ministry said on its Facebook page Thursday that militants had hit part of a power-generating station with rockets in the western Syrian city of Hama. The Syrian government hasn't said whether this damage was linked to the nationwide outage; the ministry said maintenance workers were fixing the damage.

Syria's power infrastructure has been damaged during the war, accounting in part for frequent outages even in areas that it still served.

Thursday's outage came in the middle of a two-week truce between government forces and certain militant groups -- a pause in fighting that is meant to allow humanitarian aid to reach people who have been cut off by the war.