Ankara: A car bomb explosion rocked a police headquarters in the town of Cizre in Turkey today, killing nine people and wounding dozens, sources said, in the latest in a spate of attacks in the country's turbulent south east. News channel NTV showed large plumes of smoke billowing from the site which it said was a police checkpoint. Cizre is located in Sirnak, a province that borders both Syria and Iraq and has a largely Kurdish population.
Ambulances rushed to the scene and hospital sources said at least nine people were killed and 64 wounded. State-run Anadolu Agency blamed the attack on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has been involved in almost daily clashes in the region since last July, when a ceasefire between it and the government collapsed. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died since the rebels took up arms in 1984. Yesterday, Interior Minister Efkan Ala accused the group of attacking a convoy carrying the main opposition party leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu. The government has blamed the PKK for a series of attacks this month in the southeast. The group has claimed responsibility for at least one attack, on a police station.