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August 8, 2008 Kurdish rebels say to bomb
more economic targets in Turkey after claiming
strategic oil pipeline blast. Kurdish rebels
threatened more attacks on economic targets
Friday after claiming responsibility for a
blast in eastern Turkey that shut down a
strategic oil pipeline, an agency close to the
rebels reported.
"Attacks on economic interests have a
deterring effect (on Turkey)... As long as the
Turkish state insists on war, such acts will
be naturally carried out," Bahoz Erdal, a
commander of the separatist Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK), told the Firat news agency.
The PKK claimed responsibility for a blast
Tuesday night at a section of the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline near
Refahiye, in Erzincan province.
The explosion sparked a fire, which
continued to burn Friday, triggering fresh
jitters at the world oil markets.
The conduit, which supplies oil to Western
markets, is expected to remain shut for about
15 days.
The PKK said the explosion was "an act of
sabotage" by its militants, details of which
would be revealed later, according to Firat.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by
Turkey and much of the international
community, has sabotaged gas and oil pipelines
in the past as part of its armed campaign for
self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
Erdal said the pipeline blast and other PKK
attacks in recent weeks were in response to an
intensified Turkish crackdown against the
rebels both inside Turkey and neighbouring
northern Iraq, where they take refuge.
The Turkish authorities have played down
the possibility of a sabotage at the BTC
pipeline, and the Anatolia news agency Friday
quoted unnamed officials as saying that the
PKK might be seeking publicity.
An official from Turkey's state-run oil and
gas company, BOTAS, said Thursday that no
trace of a sabotage had been found but a
definite conclusion could be reached only
after the fire at the pipeline was
extinguished.
The Refahiye's sub-governor had earlier
ruled out sabotage, saying a fault had been
detected before the blast.
Inaugurated in 2006, the 1,774-kilometre
(1,109-mile) BTC pipeline is the world's
second longest.
It carries Azeri oil from the Caspian Sea
fields, the world's third largest reserve, to
Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, from
where tankers transport the crude to Western
markets.
It was pumping about 1.2 million barrels of
oil per day before the blast.
Analysts suggested the shutdown could last
longer than Turkish officials estimate and
British energy giant BP said it was looking at
alternative means of delivering supplies to
Western clients.
The PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule
in Turkey's southeast in 1984, sparking a
conflict that has claimed more than 37,000
lives.
Turkish warplanes have staged air raids
against PKK bases in northern Iraq since
December, helped by US intelligence on rebel
movements in the region.
In February, the army also conducted a
week-long ground incursion in northern Iraq,
killing at least 240 PKK militants and
destroying dozens of hideouts, training camps
and ammunition depots.
Last week, the Turkish authorities blamed
the PKK for two bomb blasts in Istanbul on
July 27, which killed 17 people, including
five children, and injured more than 150.
On Wednesday night, the rebels fired
rockets at a police station in the eastern
town of Malazgirt, killing a policeman and
wounding three others. |
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