Syria Turns Off the Internet

Someone appears to have completely cut off Syria's Internet access, two US-based monitoring companies reported today. Landlines and mobile phone signals have been cut off as well in at least some parts of Damascus, another activist tells the Guardian. The government has cut off phone and Internet access in specific regions before, but Syria's information minister told a pro-government TV station that it was the "terrorists," meaning opposition fighters, who had cut off communications. Another official said engineers were working to restore them.

Meanwhile, rebels say they’ve begun blocking access to Damascus' international airport, prompting the Emirates airlines and EgyptAir to suspend all flights to the capital. Getting out of Syria by land is a tricky proposition as well; the government has strewn landmines along its borders with Turkey and Lebanon, landmine activists said today, making it the only government in the world to use the dreaded contraptions this year. The Assad regime has also been accused of stepping up cluster bomb attacks on civilians, Reuters reports. (More Syria stories.)