A bomb explosion overnight on Monday near an Iran-Turkey pipeline has suspended the transport of gas, the Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Ministry said.
“The explosion caused a fire. But we managed to put it out quickly. The transportation of gas will resume when the pipeline is repaired,” Taner Yildiz said in a statement, according to state-run news agency Anatolia.
The blast, which took place in the eastern Turkish province of Agri, has been treated as a sabotage attack and although no one has claimed responsibility yet, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is considered to be behind it.
PKK is also suspected of the Monday killing of one paramilitary police commander in a predominantly Kurdish part of eastern Turkey,
The group has claimed responsibility for the killing of two Turkish soldiers in a car bombing in Diyarbakir province on Sunday, and the shooting of two policemen in their beds in the southeast two weeks ago.
