Syria internet, phones down after cable damage

Internet and phone communications inside Syria were down on Monday after damage to a fiber-optic cable, Syrian state television said, without specifying how the cable was damaged. It was unclear if the outage was nationwide, but Internet and phone lines in Damascus were not functioning, Voice of Russia reported. State television quoted the director of Syria's telecommunications network as saying Internet services had been disrupted by damage to a cable. Communications in Syria have regularly been disrupted by damage to infrastructure as a result of fighting between foreign-backed militants and government forces.