A radical Kurdish group calling itself the Kurdish Freedom Falcons has claimed responsibility for a huge fire at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport: Kurdish group claims Istanbul airport fire.

A radical Kurdish group said it was responsible for a fire at the cargo section of Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, the hub of international air travel in Turkey, which slightly injured three people and caused delays in air traffic.

The claim, which could not be confirmed, was made by a group calling itself the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) in a message to Firat, a pro-Kurdish news agency based in Europe.

“The sabotage is a response to the policies of massacre followed by the Turkish state towards the Kurds,” the message said. It added that its actions would continue “as long as the extermination policies of the Turkish state against the Kurds are in force”.

The Turkish government says the TAK is an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), regarded as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union. The PKK denies any links with the TAK, which has targeted the tourist industry and in one attack in July last year planted a bomb that killed a British woman and an Irishwoman.

The blaze started in Terminal C where outgoing and incoming freight is stored, and the flames were brought under control about an hour later.

Istanbul deputy governor Fikret Kasapoglu said it was not immediately clear what had caused the blaze, but said officials suspected it was triggered by either a short-circuit or goods catching fire from sparks of a welding machine.

UPDATE at 5/24/06 3:31:23 pm:

An LGF reader emails:

As a journalist living in Istanbul I can assure you TAK had nothing to do with the fire, they and other rag-tag Kurdish or leftist groups claim any big disaster like this. Kasapoglu’s statement about worker carelessness is a lot more believable.