Turkey suicide bombing kills 11 policemen: How it all happened

“At 6:45 am (0915 IST), a suicide attack with a vehicle laden with explosives was carried out by the PKK terror group on the building of anti-riot police,” the provincial governor’s office said in a statement. The Cizre blast ripped through the facade of the four-storey police headquarters, shooting up plumes of thick black smoke. Adjacent buildings were also badly damaged.

In a statement to the media, Turkish Prime Minister Benali Yildrim has said that terrorist organisations aim to create a state in Syria and Turkey will not succeed. He also said Turkey will clear its borders of Islamic State and other militant groups to prevent a new flow of migrants and will continue operations until the nation’s security is guaranteed.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Recep Akdag said that four people were in a critical condition. Apparently, the blast took place hours after the Turkish military shelled positions held by rebels and Kurdish militia inside Syrian territory.

Emergency services attend the scene after Kurdish militants attacked a police checkpoint in Cizre in southeast Turkey, Friday, Aug. 26, 2016, with an explosives-laden truck, killing several police officers and wounding dozens more, according to reports from the state-run Anadolu news agency. (DHA via AP)

Before embarking on its three-day operation in Syria, Turkey had said that the operation is it biggest till date in its war-torn neighbour and is aimed both at the Islamic State Group (IS) and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, who are leading the fight against IS in the area. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the operation has two-pronged approach: Drive out the Islamic State from the border area and prevent any territorial gains by the YPG rebel group. Turkey’s firing on the US-backed YPG fighters in northern Syria also puts the spotlight on the cross-cutting of interests of two pivotal NATO allies.

Turkey has labelled the YPG, which reportedly has links to the country’s outlawed PKK, a terror group hell bent on carving out an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria along the Turkish border. At least 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed since rebels took up arms in Turkey in 1984.

The state-controlled Anadolu news agency said the suicide bomb went off nearly 50 metres away from the building at a control post. Cizre, a majority Kurdish town, has faced the brunt of violence between the PKK and government forces since the collapse of a ceasefire last year.

WATCH VIDEO

In the past, Turkish security forces have been struck by almost daily attacks by the PKK after the two-and-a-half year truce collapsed. It left several hundreds of police officers and soldiers dead. The latest bombing came at a critical moment, with hundreds of Turkish forces and dozens of tanks deployed inside Syria. Kurdish activists on their part have repeatedly accused Turkey of trying to prevent Kurds creating a stronghold along its border than fighting Islamic State jihadists.

However, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yidirim denounced as ‘lies’ suggestions in Western media that the country’s Syria operation was singling out Kurds in its fight against the IS. “They either know nothing about the world, or else their job is to report a bare-faced lie,” Yildirim said.

(With inputs from AP, AFP)