(CNN) -- A telecommunications company on Friday blamed a ship anchor for cutting one of three severed undersea cables that snarled Internet traffic throughout the Middle East last week.

FLAG Telecom's FALCON cable spanning Dubai and Oman was snapped February 1 by an abandoned six-ton ship anchor, the company said, and will be repaired by Sunday.

The cut cables linking the Mideast not only fouled up communications, but they also provided prime fodder for Web-based conspiracy theorists around the world.

"Fundamentally, if somebody wants to cut a cable, they can do so -- all you need to do is go trawling with an anchor," said Stephan Beckert an analyst with TeleGeography, a research company that consults on global Internet issues. He scoffed at conspiracy theories posted online by what he calls "the tin-foil hat crowd."

FLAG said Friday that its severed Europe-Asia Internet cable in the Mediterranean Sea that links Egypt and Italy also would be repaired by Sunday.

A third cut cable, called SeaMeWe-4, lies just a few hundred meters from FLAG's Europe-Asia line. It's co-owned by France Telecom and is expected to be back in working order soon, said Beckert.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/02/08/internet.outage/index.html