Iraq says it has arrested PKK-linked cell suspected of planning attacks

2/7/2024 6:53

        Iraq said on Monday it had arrested three people linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and suspected of planning attacks across the country, including on a key oil export pipeline in the north.
        
        Interior ministry officials showed reporters three suspects dressed in yellow jumpsuits with their faces covered by masks and said they had comprised a cell connected to the PKK.
        
        "An investigation showed that these PKK members had plans to attack the Ceyhan oil pipeline linking Kirkuk, Erbil and Duhok to Turkey," Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Muqdad Meeri told a press conference in Baghdad.
        
        Meeri said that the three had confessed to setting sabotage fires at commercial markets in the Kurdistan region including the city of Kirkuk over the past few months.
        
        He said the recent fires had incurred losses of around $300 million and were ordered by the PKK as a part of a campaign to attack the commercial interests of a “neighbouring state”, which Iraqi security officials said was Turkey.