The terrorist attack took place at 06.45 a.m. (0345GMT) with a bomb-laden truck targeting a checkpoint some 50 meters from riot police unit headquarters in the town of Cizre, Sirnak, the governor’s office added. In the television footage captured of the incident, black smoke can be seen coming from the truck as well as serious damage to the three-story police station. Turkish government and allies view the group as terrorists plaguing the country. Image credit: STR / AFP – Getty Images.
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Four of the injured were in critical condition, Turkish Health Minister Recep Akdag told CNN Turk. He vowed to “destroy the terrorists”.
The Cizre bombing comes two days after the Turkish military launched an unprecedented ground offensive in Syria, which the authorities say is aimed both at jihadists and Syrian Kurdish militia allied to the PKK. More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died since the rebels took up arms in Turkey in 1984.
In a statement on the website of the PKK’s military wing, the militant group said the Cizre attack was in retaliation to jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan’s “isolation” on his prison island off Istanbul. Image credit: EFE/Sedat Suna.
The PKK – also listed as a terrorist organization by the USA and the European Union – resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015.
The group has claimed responsibility for at least one attack, on a police station.
In Washington, National Security Council spokesman Ned Price condemned the attack and said that, if confirmed, it is just one in a disturbing string of attacks by the PKK.
Qatar expressed condemnation and denunciation of the bombing which occurred near a police checkpoint in the southeastern Turkish province of Sirnak yesterday, killing 11 officers and wounding 78, including three civilians.
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The country is still recovering from last month’s failed coup attempt that killed about 270 people, which government believes was influenced by USA -based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.
