Turkish Authorities Blame PKK Kurdish Militants for Truck Bombing in Cizre

Regional Turkish authorities blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party for killing at least 11 people in Cizre on Friday.

ANKARA (Sputnik) – A truck bombing that killed at least 11 police in the southeastern Turkish town of Cizre was carried out by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) suicide bomber, the Sirnak provincial authorities said in a statement Friday.

"A PKK suicide attack using a truck bomb took place at a checkpoint in the Cizre area of our province this morning at 6:45 a.m. [03:45 GMT]. Eleven policemen were killed as a result of this cowardly terrorist attack and 78 people, including three civilians, were wounded. Four are in serious condition," the Sirnak administration said.

Its comments were echoed by Prime Minister Binali Yildlirim in televised remarks. Television channels broadcast images of the police building's carcass. Local correspondents described seeing a "large pit" at the site of the explosion.

The Health Ministry was quoted as saying earlier that 12 ambulances and two helicopters have been dispatched to the scene of the incident.

Deadly clashes between the PKK and the Turkish armed forces occur regularly in the Sirnak province, the site of a number of terrorist attacks since the July 2015 breakdown of the ceasefire.