At least 11 police officers have been killed and 78 others wounded after a car bomb exploded outside a police facility in southeast Turkey.
The blast occurred on August 25 in Cizre, a town near the border with Syria and Iraq that has a largely Kurdish population.
The blast caused extensive damage to the headquarters of the special riot police force in Cizre, with television footage showing plumes of black smoke rising above the town.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yidirim said the blast had been carried out by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey, the European Union, and the United States consider a terrorist organization.
Clashes between Turkish security forces and PKK fighters have increased since a two-and-a-half-year ceasefire collapsed in 2015.
The attack comes two days after Turkey launched its first major offensive in neighboring Syria which authorities said is aimed both at Islamic State (IS) militants and Syrian Kurdish militias with ties to the PKK.
Yidirim denounced as a “bare-faced lie” suggestions in Western media that Ankara’s military operation in Syria was singling out Kurds rather than militants.
Source: rferl.org
Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
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