Gas flow from Iran to Turkey disrupted after new blast: report

ISTANBUL - Agence France - Presse

REUTERS photo

Natural gas supplies from Iran to Turkey were disrupted again after a new attack blamed on outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on a pipeline in the country's northeast, local authorities said today.

"Militants sabotaged the Doğubayazit-Van natural gas pipeline on Saturday... forcing a disruption in the flow," the governorate of the northeastern city of Ağri said in a statement quoted by the Anatolia News Agency.

PKK has ramped up attacks on the same pipeline to interrupt the flow of gas to Turkey. Forces dispatched to the area defused explosives found near the blast zone, the statement added.
 
The same pipeline near the town of Dogubayazit in Ağri city was targeted by the rebels on October 8, but gas supplies were resumed a week ago after a six-day repair.

On Friday, PKK wounded 28 Turkish soldiers when they sabotaged a pipeline in Eleşkirt, another town located in Ağri province.

Energy Minister Taner Yıldız vowed then that Turkey would not suffer from gas shortages as Russia and Azerbaijan were providing additional supplies.

About 45,000 people have been killed since the PKK took up arms for autonomy in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984.