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ISTANBUL, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Kurdish separatists
claimed responsibility for a fire at a warehouse of
an electronics manufacturer in western Turkey that
caused millions of dollars of damage but no
casualties.
Europe-based Roj TV, a mouthpiece for the PKK, said
late on Tuesday the militants had set fire to a Beko
Elektronik <BEKO.IS> warehouse in Beylikduzu,
outside Istanbul, on Monday after five guerrillas
were killed by Turkish security forces this month.
Roj said the PKK has threatened to launch more
attacks in metropolitan areas if attacks on the
rebels continue.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which launched an
armed uprising for an ethnic homeland in 1984, has
traditionally conducted guerrilla warfare in rural
areas of the mainly Kurdish southeast and has not
generally hit economic targets.
More than 30,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died in
two decades of conflict with the PKK, but fighting
fell off sharply with the 1999 capture of rebel
commander Abdullah Ocalan.
Violence has been on the rise in the southeast since
June 2004, when the PKK called off its unilateral
ceasefire.
A top Beko official was quoted by newspapers as
saying between 30,000 and 35,000 products were lost
-- around half of them television sets.
Another Beko official told Reuters all of the
products were fully insured, but could not give an
estimate for their value.
Beko, a subsidiary of industrial group Koc Holding <KCHOL.IS>,
is one of Europe's leading television manufacturers,
producing more than six million sets last year.
Reuters
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