Kurdish rebels attack Turkish oil pipeline: report

Turkey's state-run television said on Monday that Kurdish rebels attacked a pipeline carrying oil from Iraq to world markets, cutting oil flows for a second time in two weeks.

TRT television said the rebels blew up a section of the pipeline running from Kirkuk, in northern Iraq to a Turkish Mediterranean port, late on Sunday. The attack occurred in the southeastern province of Mardin.

Officials at Turkey's energy ministry and at the state pipeline company could not immediately be reached.

It was the second attack on the pipeline in just over two weeks. On July 21, an explosion and fire blamed on rebels also shut down oil flows for days.

Two pipelines from Kirkuk to the Turkish Mediterranean port at Ceyhan carry about 25 million tons of crude oil a year.

Shwan Zulal, an expert on oil in the region, said the attack was likely to be a reaction to the recent crackdown on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in southern Turkey, in which dozens of rebel fighters have been killed.

"It is related to tensions between Turkey and the PKK," he told Al-Akhbar. "The PKK can blow it (the pipeline) up any time they want to as they have the resources to do it. They use it as a pressure."

He added that the pipeline would normally take between 24 hours and three days to get back online.

Violence has escalated between Turkey and Kurdish rebels this year, fearing a spillover into Syria, which also has a sizable Kurdish minority.

The PKK launched a military campaign against Turkey in 1984 for greater autonomy in the predominantly Kurdish southeastern corner of the country.

(Al-Akhbar, AP)