Syrian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Ghanem says foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants have launched a drone strike against a gas field and a number of energy facilities in the country’s central province of Homs, causing fire and material damage.
Ghanem in a statement carried by Syria’s official news agency SANA said unmanned aerial vehicles targeted al-Rayyan gas field, the Ebla gas plant, the South Central region gas factory and the Homs refinery early on Wednesday.
He added that maintenance workers embarked on fixing the damage after fire was extinguished.
The Ebla gas plant provides local power plants with approximately 2.5 million cubic meters of gas per day.
The refinery in Homs is one of Syria’s two main refineries, covering most domestic demand for diesel, heating fuel, gasoline and other products.
Back on December 21 last year, the Syrian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources announced in a statement that terrorists had targeted the oil refinery in Homs, located more than located 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of the capital Damascus, and the two gas facilities – one south of the city and one in the desert to its east.
The ministry added that several production units were damaged as a result.
Erdogan: Turkey will not allow Syrian govt. forces to advance in Idlib
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country’s military forces will not allow government troops to gain territory in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib.
He added that the attack on Turkish forces, which killed seven soldiers and a civilian on Sunday night, is a clear violation of the Sochi deal.
“Of course there will be costs of such actions for the (Syrian) regime. We have already said that we will do whatever is necessary from now on,” Erdogan told reporters on a flight back from Ukraine on Tuesday.
The Turkish president noted that Russia has been informed about the latest developments in Syria, and that Ankara cannot tolerate any more conflict in Idlib nor a new influx of refugee.
On Monday, Syria’s pro-government and Arabic-language daily al-Watan reported that Turkey had sent a convoy of armored vehicles to Syria’s Idlib province in order to block the advance of the Syrian army towards the town of Saraqib.
The paper added that Turkish military is strengthening observation posts on the outskirts of Saraqib and is installing one more post on the Kfar Amim-Abu al Duhur line.