Turkey: On Friday, 12 police officers were killed and 45 people injured when a vehicle bomb blamed on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants explode outside a police building in the southeast of Turkey.
Advertisement
Smoke rises and fires still burn after a bomb attack on a police checkpoint in Cizre, southeast Turkey, August 26, 2016.
Also on Thursday, Interior Minister Efkan Ala accused the PKK of attacking a convoy carrying the country’s main opposition party leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
Hospital sources said at least nine people were killed, while Health Minister Recep Akdag added that more than 70 people were injured.
On Thursday, Turkey shelled Kurdish fighters in the area, saying they were failing to observe a deal with the USA to stop advancing west into IS-held territory. Earlier this week, Turkish tanks entered northern Syria to help Syrian rebels clear ISIS from a border town.
The provincial governor’s office said 11 police officers were killed and 78 people, three of them civilians, wounded.
The PKK, which is banned in Turkey, launched its insurgency in 1984, alleging widespread abuse and discrimination against Kurds by Turkish authorities. On Thursday, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported that Turkish artillery fired at Syrian Kurdish fighters who were advancing north toward Jarablus despite Turkish warnings for them to retreat. Hundreds of security force members have been killed since.
The movement has been fighting for autonomy for decades and has, especially in Turkey’s view, sister organisations in Iraq, and especially in Syria.
The town of Cizre has been the center of tensions between the PKK and the Turkish government for months, and curfews are routine in the area.
It is proscribed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
Advertisement
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 facilities.
