11 die as truck bomb targets checkpoint

AT least 11 police officers have died and 78 other people are injured after Kurdish militants attacked a police checkpoint in south-east Turkey with an explosives-laden truck.

Yesterday’s attack struck the checkpoint some 50 metres from a main police station near the town of Cizre, in the mainly-Kurdish Sirnak province that borders Syria, the Anadolu Agency reported.

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 installations.

Authorities have blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for those attacks.

Television footage showed black smoke rising from the mangled truck. The three-storey police station was gutted in the explosion.

The Health Ministry said it had sent 12 ambulances and two helicopters to the site.

Violence between the PKK and the security forces resumed last year after the collapse of a fragile two-year peace process between the government and the militant group. Hundreds of security force members have been killed since.

Turkey has also seen a rise of deadly attacks that have been blamed on Islamic State (IS) militants, including a suicide bombing at a Kurdish wedding in south-east Turkey last week.

The attacks on police come as the country is still reeling from a violent coup attempt on July 15.