2 days ago
DOHA (AFP) — Damage to several undersea telecom cables that
caused outages across the Middle East and Asia could have been an
act of sabotage, the International Telecommunication Union said on
Monday.
"We do not want to preempt the results of ongoing
investigations, but we do not rule out that a deliberate act of
sabotage caused the damage to the undersea cables over two weeks
ago," the UN agency's head of development, Sami al-Murshed, told
AFP.
Five undersea cables were damaged in late January and early
February leading to disruption to Internet and telephone services
in parts of the Middle East and south Asia.
There has been speculation that the sheer number of cables being
cut over such a short period was too much of a coincidence and that
sabotage must have been involved.
India's Flag telecom revealed on February 7 that the cut to the
Falcon cable between the United Arab Emirates and Oman was caused
by a ship's anchor. But mystery shrouds what caused another four
reported cuts.
"Some experts doubt the prevailing view that the cables were cut
by accident, especially as the cables lie at great depths under the
sea and are not passed over by ships," Murshed said on the
sidelines of a conference on cyber-crime held in Gulf state of
Qatar.
The Falcon cable has since been repaired, along with the Flag
Europe Asia (FEA) cable which was damaged off Egypt's Mediterranean
coast. The status of the remaining cable is still unclear.