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By The Associated Press

ANKARA, Turkey — Militants attacked a police checkpoint in southeast Turkey on Friday, killing at least 11 officers and wounding 78 other people, according to officials and the state-run news agency.

The attack — carried out with an explosives-laden truck — struck the checkpoint some 50 yards from a main police station near Cizre, the Anadolu Agency reported. The town lies in the mainly-Kurdish Sirnak province that borders Syria.

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The local governor's office confirmed the death toll and said three of the injured were civilians.

Turkish police and firefighters park near the police headquarters in Cizre. STR / AFP - Getty Images

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which was the latest in a string of bombings targeting police or military vehicles and installations. Authorities have blamed the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, for those attacks.

Television footage showed black smoke rising from the mangled truck. The three-story police station was gutted from the powerful explosion.

After a fragile two-year peace process collapsed last year, violence resumed between security forces and the PKK, which is considered a terror organization by Turkey and its allies. Hundreds of security force members have been killed since.

Turkey has also seen a rise of deadly attacks that have been blamed on Islamic State militants, including a suicide bombing at a Kurdish wedding in southeast Turkey last week that killed 54 people and an attack on Istanbul's main airport in June, which killed 44.

Turkey sent tanks across the Syrian border this week to help Syrian rebels retake a key IS-held town.