Turkey-Iran Pipeline Blast Halts Gas Supplies

An explosion late on Monday suspended gas transport along a pipeline between Turkey and Iran, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Y?ld?z has said.

The pipes were caught in flames due to the blast which was extinguished quickly, state-run Anadolu Agency quotes him as saying.

In Y?ld?z's words, transportation is set to continue as soon as repair works are finished.

No-one has yet claimed responsibility for the incident.

The development which took place in the A?r? province, whose population is predominantly Kurdish, comes at a time of renewed tensions between the government and the Kurdish population. Ankara embarked on air raids against Iraq-based targets of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an outlawed group with which a ceasefire had been in place since the spring of 2013.

A string of recent attacks, carried out alongside a suicide bombing in the town of Suruc (supposedly by the Islamic State group), have been blamed on the PKK and other Kurdish groups.

On Monday, the Turkish state intelligence agency MIT warned there might be terror attacks in major cities in retaliation to the operations against IS and PKK.

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