Caretaker Syrian PM on gas pipeline blast

An explosion early Monday struck a gas pipeline in a Damascus suburb, causing a huge fire and cutting off electricity throughout Syria, state media reported.

Syrian caretaker prime minister Hussein Arnous, who visited the site, described it as a "terrorist" act.

"It is an act by the enemies of the Syrian people which on the top of it is the United States, Turkey and their collaborators," Arnous said.

Syrian civil defence teams were able to extinguish the fire that broke out in the gas pipeline that feeds the power plants in southern region of Syria.

Workers have begun to fix the pipe that was destroyed.

According to US Syria envoy James Jeffrey, the attack was almost certainly the work of the Islamic State group.

The extremists were driven from the last bit of territory under their control in Syria last year, but sleeper cells continue to carry out sporadic attacks.

Syria's oil and gas infrastructure has been hit over the past years by acts of sabotage, but no one has ever claimed responsibility for such attacks.

The nine-year civil war, which has killed more than 400,000 people, has also badly affected oil and gas fields, many of which are outside government control.