State-run news agency says 11 dead and dozens wounded in attack blamed on Kurdish militants in Cizre near Syrian border

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

An attack with an explosives-laden truck on a police checkpoint in south-east Turkey has killed at least 11 police officers and wounded 78 other people.

The state-run Anadolu Agency reported that Kurdish militants were responsible for the attack on a checkpoint about 50 metres from a police station near the town of Cizre, in the mainly-Kurdish Şırnak province that borders Syria.

Television footage showed black smoke rising from the mangled truck, while the three-story police station was gutted from the powerful explosion. The health ministry said it had sent 12 ambulances and two helicopters to the site.

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 (PKK) for those attacks.

Violence between the PKK and the security forces resumed last year, after the collapse of a fragile two-year peace process between the government and the militant group. Hundreds of security force members have been killed since.



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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 south-east 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 Isis-held town.

Since hostilities with the PKK resumed last summer, more than 600 Turkish security personnel and thousands of PKK militants have been killed, according to the Anadolu Agency. Human rights groups say hundreds of civilians have also been killed.

The PKK is considered a terror organisation by Turkey and its allies.

The attacks on police came as the country was still reeling from a violent coup attempt on 15 July that killed at least 270 people. The government has blamed the failed coup on the supporters of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen and has embarked on a sweeping crackdown on his followers.

On Thursday, Kurdish rebels opened fire at security forces protecting a convoy of vehicles carrying Turkey’s main opposition party leader, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, in the north-east, killing a soldier and wounding two others, officials said.