The Syrian government shut down the Internet across the country and cut cellphone services in select areas Thursday as rebels and government troops waged fierce battles near the capital's airport, wounding two Austrian peacekeepers and forcing international airlines to suspend flights, activists said according to AP. The blackout, confirmed by two U.S-based companies that monitor online connectivity, is unprecedented in Syria's 20-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad. Regime forces have suffered a string of tactical defeats in recent weeks, losing air bases and other strategic facilities, and pulling the plug on the Internet may be an attempt by the government to dull any additional rebel offensives by hampering communications. Authorities often cut phone lines and Internet access in select areas where regime forces are conducting major military operations to disrupt rebel communications. Activists in Syria reached Thursday by satellite telephone confirmed the blackout. -- SPA
