Power outage hits Damascus, Southern Syria

Power outage has hit Damascus and much of South Syria, leaving residents cold and in the dark amid a fuel crisis that has stranded many at home. The Syrian government blamed it on a rebel attack on a key power line.

While Damascus's 2.5 million residents have grown used to frequent power cuts as the country's conflict has damaged infrastructure and sapped the government's finances, the current outage is the first to darken the entire capital since the conflict began.
The blackout hit residents especially hard because of rampant fuel shortages and the winter cold that pushed temperatures below freezing overnight. Getting gas requires waiting in hours-long lines at stations, and cooking fuel and diesel for portable heaters has grown scarce and expensive, forcing people to find other ways to keep warm.