BEIRUT: Near-simultaneous attacks believed to have been carried out by drones hit three government-run oil and gas installations in central Syria, state TV and the Oil Ministry said on Saturday.

No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, which targeted the Homs oil refinery one of only two in the country as well as two natural gas facilities in different parts of Homs province.

Syria has suffered fuel shortages since earlier this year amid Western sanctions blocking imports, and because most of the country’s oil fields are controlled by Kurdish-led fighters in the country’s east.

State TV said it believes the attacks were carried out by drones and happened at the same time. It said a fire at the Homs oil refinery was soon put under control. The report said the Rayan gas facility and a third installation, also in Homs province, were hit.

Syria’s Oil Ministry said the attacks damaged some “production units” in the facilities. It said fires were being fought, and that repairs were already underway in some places.

The city of Homs and its suburbs have been fully under Syrian government control since 2017. However, some parts of the province near the border with Jordan remain in rebel hands.

A surge in violence on Saturday left 12 civilians dead in Syria’s last major opposition bastion as aid groups warned of a humanitarian catastrophe if cross-border aid stops reaching the region.

Heightened regime and Russian bombardment on the northwestern province of Idlib since December 16 has already forced tens of thousands of vulnerable people to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.

The world body has called for “immediate de-escalation” and warned of further mass displacement if the violence continues.

The jihadist-dominated Idlib region hosts some three million people including many displaced by years of violence in other parts of Syria.

The Damascus regime has repeatedly vowed to take back the area, and bombardment has continued despite a ceasefire announced in August.

Exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation, Russia and China blocked a UN Security Council resolution that would have extended for a year cross-border aid deliveries to four million Syrians, many of them in the Idlib region.

Their vetoes on Friday raised fears that UN-funded assistance could stop entering opposition-held parts of Syria including the Idlib region as of next month unless an alternative agreement is found before the current resolution expires on January 10.

“Families in great need, many of whom have been forced to flee multiple times during the crisis, rely on the aid provided by UN cross-border operations,” Oxfam said in a statement on Saturday.

“There is no realistic way of reaching hundreds of thousands of these families” from inside Syria, it added.

Abu Zakour, a 70-year-old living in a camp in northern Idlib, voiced fears for the fate of the displaced if the deliveries were halted. “Had it not been for the aid, we would have died from hunger,” he said.

The fears of an aid crisis came as violence intensified in Idlib.

The Damascus regime, which controls 70 per cent of Syria, launched a blistering offensive against Idlib in April, killing around 1,000 civilians and displacing more than 400,000.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2019