Explosion hits police headquarters in SE Turkey
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Kurdistan24) – A car bomb attack on Friday hit a police checkpoint in Turkey’s Kurdish southeastern province of Sirnak.
In the Kurdish border town of Cizre, Kurdistan24 learned from security sources that an explosion claimed the lives of about 11 people and wounded 78 others.
According to the Security sources, the attack targeted a checkpoint some 50 meters from the police headquarters.
Turkey’s opposition Dogan News Agency (DHA) showed large plumes of smoke billowing from the site.
The surrounding police building, houses and workplaces were severely damaged.
Immediately after the explosion, security forces launched intense investigations into the deadly blast searching for the perpetrators.
No parties claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Turkish state-run press agency Anadolu Agency (AA) blamed the attack on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Later, Netherlands-based Kurdish Firat News Agency (ANF), a close associate of PKK’s military wing HPG, published the HPG statement that assumed responsibility for the attack.
"Responding to the Turkish government's assaults against the Kurds, including the detention of our leader Abdullah Ocalan, our team in Cizre carried out an operation that killed dozens of Turkish police," HPG statement said.
The blast came two days after Turkey launched military operations inside Syria on the Islamic State (IS)-held town of Jarabulus and on the positions of the Syrian Kurdish forces (YPG).
Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan said the operations inside Syria is aimed both at driving IS away from the border area and preventing territorial gains by the YPG.
On Wednesday, the Turkish-backed Syrian Arab rebels took full control of Jarabulus by the support of the Turkish army.
On Thursday, the YPG forces announced they withdrew from the Syrian northern town of Manbij that was liberated two weeks ago by the YPG-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Turkey’s southeast has been scorched by violence since a ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015. Round-the-clock curfews were instituted in parts of the southeast.
Sirnak Province is on Kurdistan of Turkey (Bakur)'s border with both Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Editing by Ava Homa
[Plumes of smoke billowing from the explosion site in the town of Cizre, Sirnak province, Turkey, August 26, 2016. (Photo: Dogan News Agency/DHA)]
[Plumes of smoke billowing from the explosion site in the town of Cizre, Sirnak province, Turkey, August 26, 2016. (Photo: Dogan News Agency/DHA)]