This amateur video footage posted on a social media website purportedly shows flames and thick black smoke billowing from a pipeline in Syria.
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.
A second video purports to show the immediate aftermath of the explosion.
Here the narrator claims government forces bombed the pipeline to create a pretext for attacking the city.
Due to restrictions imposed on journalists by the Syrian regime, Reuters cannot independently verify the contents of these videos.
The official Syrian news agency said the explosion was an act of sabotage by an armed terrorist group.
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.
Nick Rowlands, Reuters.