The Turkish government has accused the PKK, which the U.S., European Union and Turkey designate as an extremist organization, of carrying out a series of attacks against Turkish authorities in the country’s southeast.
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A Kurdish suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden truck into a checkpoint near a police station Friday in southeast Turkey, killing at least 11 police officers and wounding 78 other people, the prime minister said.
Officials blamed the attack on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) – which has been involved in nearly daily clashes in the region since last July – and vowed to retaliate. Hundreds of security forces members have been killed since.
The PKK group has waged an insurgency in Turkey for three decades in a conflict that has left tens of thousands dead.
The bomb attack caused enormous damage to the headquarters of the special anti-riot police force in Cizre, with television pictures showing a thick plume of black smoke heading into the sky.
Turkey has also seen a rise of deadly attacks that have been blamed on ISIS 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.
The latest attack comes two days after Turkish forces launched an unprecedented offensive in neighbouring Syria which the authorities say is aimed both at jihadists and Syrian Kurdish militia.
According to the Sirnak Governor’s Office, three further officers succumbed to their wounds in hospital, bringing the death toll to 11.
The country’s health ministry said 12 ambulances and two helicopters were pressed into action. A Turkish human rights group said scores of civilians were killed in the operations.
Since then, more than 600 security personnel have been martyred and more than 7,000 PKK terrorists have been killed.
More than 40,000 people have lost their lives in clashes with the PKK since 1984, when the group first started anti-government attacks.
Also on Thursday, Interior Minister Efkan Ala accused the PKK of attacking a convoy carrying the country’s main opposition party leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
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At least 11 police officers have been killed in a auto bomb attack in southeast Turkey.
