Kurdish rebels are suspected of carrying out the second attack on a Turkish pipeline in less that two months. Two people were killed and one injured after an explosion at an oil pipeline in southeastern Turkey near the Iraqi border on Tuesday. Though no one has declared responsibility for this blast, officials suspect the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK – a Kurdish separatist militant group that claimed responsibility for a similar attack in July. The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, temporarily damaged by the blast, is comprised of two parallel pipelines and carries nearly 500000 barrels of oil daily between Iraq and Turkey. Sabotage of the energy corridor is less common on the Turkish side than on the Iraqi side of the border. After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the same pipeline sustained damage from insurgency attacks that kept the pipeline closed until three years ago. Iraqi officials use different pumping stations when the main line is damaged. The PKK, in its 26-year continued insurgency against the Turkish state is notorious for targeting strategic assets like railways and pipelines.

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