Iranian truck set ablaze in eastern Turkey

AĞRI - Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

An Iranian carrier truck has been set on fire in the eastern province of Ağrı while heading from Turkey to Iran.

The Iran-bound truck was set on fire around 9:15 p.m. on Aug. 16 on a Turkey-Iran transit passing in Ağrı’s Doğubayazıt district after unidentified men threw Molotov cocktails at the carrier transporting of tissues as it sat beside an internal customs building.

Firefighters dispatched to the scene quickly extinguished the fire in the truck’s trailer and a police investigation was launched into the incident.

The incident came less than a week after Iranian Road and Urban Planning Deputy Minister Davud Keşaverziyan announced in a written statement the Gürbulak-Bazargan customs gate, the biggest ground gate between Iran and Turkey, was unilaterally closed in the Turkey-bound direction, citing recent attacks on Iranian carrier trucks in Turkish territories.

Keşaverziyan reportedly met with Turkish Ambassador to Iran Rıza Hakan Tekin on a series of attacks on Iranian vehicles last week, and had said closing the gate was done upon Turkey’s request and the gate was still open from Turkey to Iran. 

In a separate incident on a road connecting Doğubayazıt to the eastern province of Iğdır, two carrier trucks were set ablaze around 11 p.m. on Aug. 16 after an unknown group of people with their faces masked hurled Molotovs at several vehicles passing by at the time.