Mass blackout hits cities in Syria

A mass blackout hit most of Syria 's southern and central cities, including the capital Damascus, due to damage to key power stations, local media reported. The government engineers have started fixing the damaged stations and electricity, which went out at dawn Monday, will gradually recover in the next hours, Imad Khamis, the minister of electricity, told the local Sham FM radio. He did not say who was behind the sabotage, but the government blamed "armed terrorist groups" for the previous outages. In January 2012, rebels attacked a key power line near Damascus, causing a blackout in the capital and much of southern regions.