Unknown gunmen killed at least seven people on a bus carrying company employees home from work near Masyaf in Syria's Homs province on Wednesday, state media reported; no group has claimed the attack, and security forces have opened an investigation. Hours earlier, an explosion at a gas pipeline in eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, forced three power plants offline, and a fire at the Tishreen plant is now under control, with the cause still unclear. It was the third blast on Syria's gas network in six weeks, two of which authorities called sabotage, and the outages will lengthen power rationing, underscoring the security and economic strains facing the authorities since Bashar al-Assad's government fell at the end of 2024.