BRIEFS

PKK THREATENS TO DESTROY IRAQI OIL PIPELINES AND TANKER TRUCKS

In the face of Turkish threats of a cross-border operation into northern Iraq, a leader of the PKK, Abdul al-Rahman Chadarchi, threatened to attack Iraqi oil pipelines that pass through Kurdistan to the Turkish port city of Ceyhan (al-Sharq al-Awsat, October 21). Additionally, the militant leader warned that the PKK was considering attacking tanker trucks bringing Iraqi oil into Turkish territory. The leader, who provided the information to an al-Sharq al-Awsat journalist by phone from the safety of the Qandil Mountains, explained that Iraqi oil brings “huge amounts of money to Turkey” and that the “military regime in the country [Turkey] will use this to develop its war machine to utilize it against the Kurdish people in Turkish Kurdistan.” Chadarchi’s threat comes shortly after a similar one issued by PKK leader Murat Karayilan, who told Firat News Agency that if Turkish forces were to attack its camps in northern Iraq, the PKK might retaliate against oil pipelines.

MILITANTS DESTROY NORTH WAZIRISTAN’S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS

On October 20, militants destroyed the only high school for girls in the town of Miran Shah, which was also the biggest girls’ high school in North Waziristan Agency (The News, October 21). According to eyewitness reports, several armed men placed explosives in the school, and then at 10:00 PM local time detonated approximately four sets of explosives, destroying the two-story school building. Separately, in Bajaur Agency on October 19, militants blew up a girls’ middle school in Salarzai subdivision. These latest incidents follow a series of actions by Taliban and Islamist militants targeting schools for girls, in addition to attacks on stores selling videos and audio-cassettes.