Internet blackout in Syria after Assad`s comment on Israel

Sydney: Internet traffic in and out of Syria suddenly stopped in the wee hours of Wednesday.

Shortly after President Bashar Assad declared he was capable of facing Israel, Syria "vanished" from the internet. Assad stopped short of threatening retaliation for the strikes near the Syrian capital of Damascus after a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, who paid an unexpected visit to Damascus, reports News.com.au. US tech firms monitoring Web traffic and the State Department have confirmed the outage. The State Department and Google, through its Transparency Report on Web traffic and Web monitoring firms Akamai and Renesys, confirmed the internet blackout. The reasons were not immediately clear, but a similar blackout happened last November. According to activists, sudden communication cuts may occur before major military offensives. Later Tuesday, Internet companies reported Syria was experiencing an outage similar to a two-day blackout last fall. Syria n authorities have cut phone and Internet service in select areas in the past to disrupt rebel communications when regime forces are conducting major operations. (ANI)