Syria disappears from Internet

The Internet technical community reported early on Thursday that Syria had started disappearing from the Internet. The story was quickly picked up and reported worldwide, leading to fears that the Syrian government was about to embark on a huge campaign against rebels who have been battling the Assad regime for nearly a year. In an eerie reminder of when Egypt's Internet was shutdown at the height of its revolution, the country's IP address blocks stopped responding. A Syrian government representative blamed terrorists for the action but such a swift and controlled collapse of the country's Internet had led observers to conclude it was a deliberate act on the part of the government.