This amateur video footage posted on a social media website purportedly shows flames and thick black smoke billowing from a pipeline in Syria.<br/> The narrator says the pipeline, carrying oil from the east of the country to a refinery in the city of Homs, was blown up by the state-backed Shabiha militia supported by armoured vehicles.<br/> A second video purports to show the immediate aftermath of the explosion.<br/> Here the narrator claims government forces bombed the pipeline to create a pretext for attacking the city.<br/> Due to restrictions imposed on journalists by the Syrian regime, Reuters cannot independently verify the contents of these videos.<br/> The official Syrian news agency said the explosion was an act of sabotage by an armed terrorist group.<br/> Popular protests began in Syria nine months ago, and the ferocity of the regime response has inspired a wave of desertions from the military and the formation of an anti-government guerrilla army.<br/> Nick Rowlands, Reuters.
