Oil pipeline blasted in eastern Syria

An oil pipeline was blasted Friday in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour, the private Sham FM reported. The blast took place at al-Kharatta site, about 5 km south of Deir al-Zour, the report said, disclosing no further details on the incident. Several attacks have been carried out against gas and oil pipelines in different areas across Syria over the past eight months of protests. Syria accused armed terrorist groups of being behind the attacks. Syria's oil sector has been hit hard during the months-old unrest. Earlier in September, the European Union banned oil imports from Syria as a response to the alleged regime's crackdown against protesters. Syria's Minister of Oil Sufian Allaw told Xinhua during a recent interview that Syria has reduced its oil production from 380,000 barrels per day to 280,000 after the recent U.S. and European sanctions on its energy sector, one of the country's few lifelines. The European countries and the United States have worked on economic sanctions, aiming at pushing the Syrian citizens to take tougher positions against the regime, since the very beginning of the events in Syria, and the Arab countries have recently followed the lead in a bid to further isolate the Syrian regime and cripple the Syrian economy. Oil trade contribute to 28 percent of annual revenue of Syria. About 95 percent of the Syrian exported oil goes to Europe.