The director of the Baniyas Oil Refinery in western Syria reported that a fire broke out at the facility in the city of Baniyas on the Syrian coast, wounding four workers.
“During the maintenance work in the refinery’s improvement department, there was a combustion due to hydrogen gas, which resulted in the injury of four workers with minor burns who were treated at the hospital,” Bassam Salameh said, adding that the fire was controlled and that the facility was working normally again.
The Baniyas Refinery in the Tartus governorate in western Syria has been subjected a number of explosions and fires over the last year, with some of these incidents being accidents and the others arson.
Syria’s Ministry of Oil and Natural Resources, without specifying details, had announced that three terrorist attacks targeted oil facilities in the central Homs province. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had also talked about drone attacks targeting these facilities.
The Ministry previously reported that the attacks targeted an oil refinery located in the city of Homs, a gas plant south of the central region, and the Al Rayyan gas station in the Badia.
It also pointed out that “the assaults caused damage to some of the production units,” noting that the firefighting teams had intervened to put out the fire, and that “technical workshops had started with the repairs.”
The Syrian regime's state television broadcast videos showing firefighting teams operating in the dark to put out the flames in one of the three installations.
The official Syrian News Agency (SANA) quoted Oil Minister Ali Ghanem as saying that "the attacks has put a number of production units at the three sites out of work."
“Technical and firefighting teams were able to control the fire during the first hours, and the technical workshops began to assess the damage, and start maintenance work,” he added.
The Observatory reported that the three installations were targeted with drones. The ISIS terrorist group, whose fighters hide in the Badia, was likely behind the attack.
