At least 11 Turkish police officers were killed and more than 70 people injured in a car bombing blamed on PKK rebels at a police headquarters in the town of Cizre.
The blast came two days after Turkey launched an incursion against ISIS and Kurdish militia fighters in Syria, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility.
The bombing led to the destruction of the four-story headquarters of the anti-riot police; neighboring buildings also sustained severe damage.
The blast is the latest in a series of attacks in the southeast.
Large clouds of smoke rose from the site in Cizre, located in Turkey’s Sirnak province bordering both Syria and Iraq.
Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci, speaking on broadcaster NTV, said 11 police officers were killed and 78 were wounded. Health Minister Recep Akdag said four of them were critical.
For his part, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus stated through twitter that ISIS, the PKK and Syrian Kurdish YPG militia were attacking Turkey to take advantage of last month’s coup attempt.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed to retaliate to the bombing in Cizre.
“We will give those vile (attackers) the answer they deserve,” Yildirim told a news conference in Istanbul. “No terrorist organization can hold Turkey captive.”
It is one of the treacherous attacks carried out by the vile PKK terrorist organization,” he said
“Our people should understand and know that we have waged a collective war on terrorist groups,” the PM added.
Over 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK first took up arms in 1984 with the aim of carving out an independent state for Turkey’s Kurdish minority.
Turkish special forces, tanks and warplanes launched their first major incursion into Syria on Wednesday in support of Syrian rebels, in an operation President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said is aimed at driving ISIS away from the border area.
