It is reported that internet services in Syria have effectively been shut down.

Google announced that its services in the country were offline at 6:45pm GMT on Monday. It says causes for these disruptions vary, and include network outages and government-mandated blocks.

A chart posted as part of its Transparency Report (below) shows a complete fall-off in online traffic.

The blackout rendered most Syrian websites inaccessible according to reports although some websites that are based abroad can still be accessed.

While web security company Umbrella Security Labs says "the drop in both inbound and outbound traffic from Syria is clearly visible. The small amount of outbound traffic...indicates our DNS servers trying to reach DNS servers in Syria".

It says two remaining servers are reachable since they are not within Syria. A similar internet blackout happened in Syria back in November 2012.

The regime of President Bashar al-Assad has been fighting a bloody internal conflict for 2 years. However Russia and the US have agreed to try to bring together the feuding Syrian parties.

An international conference is being planned. It is believed it could take place sometime this month. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the violence.