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Deadly Car Bomb Hits Southeast Turkey


Smoke rises the destroyed police headquarters in Cizre, southeastern Turkey after a suicide truck bombing killed 11 police officers and injured 78 people, in an attack on August 26.
Smoke rises the destroyed police headquarters in Cizre, southeastern Turkey after a suicide truck bombing killed 11 police officers and injured 78 people, in an attack on August 26.

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.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters

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