Mediterranean cable cut severs Syria's internet, then repairs in 48 hours
The Aletar subsea cable between Tartous and Alexandria was severed on June 15; Syria rerouted via Cyprus and Turkey before splicing it back
Summary
On 15 June 2026, Syria's state operator said the Aletar Subsea Cable (787km, Tartous-Alexandria, in service since 1997) suffered an "act of sabotage," degrading internet nationwide; Damascus alleged a "systematic sabotage campaign" without naming a culprit. Syria rerouted traffic through the Ugarit cable to Pentaskhinos, Cyprus, and an overland Turkish link upgraded to 1Tbps. Engineers spliced the fibre and restored normal capacity by 17 June. The incident follows September 2025 cuts near Jeddah, underlining the Eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea as concentrated chokepoints where repair ships, deep water and contested waters slow recovery.
Why it matters
A single 1997-vintage 5Gbps cable failure blacked out a national internet, exposing how thin Internet Infrastructure redundancy is for states reconnecting after conflict.