Deadly attack

Bombing is the latest in series of attacks as Ankara tries to recover from failed July 15 coup

A car bomb at a police headquarters in Turkey kills at least 11 and wounds dozens, two days after Turkey launched an incursion against the Islamic State group in Syria.

A car bomb at a police headquarters in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast killed at least 11 and wounded dozens on Friday, ministers said. The attack came two days after Turkey launched an incursion against Islamic State and Kurdish fighters in Syria.

The state-run Anadolu news agency blamed the attack on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, a militant group which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy and has been involved in almost daily clashes with security forces since a cease-fire collapsed more than a year ago.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The bombing, the latest in a series of attacks in the southeast, comes as Turkey tries to recover from a failed July 15 military coup.

More than 1,700 military personnel have been removed, raising concerns about the NATO member’s ability to protect itself as it battles both IS in Syria and Kurdish militants at home.

Large plumes of smoke billowed from the site in Cizre, located in Turkey’s Sirnak province bordering both Syria and Iraq, footage on CNN Turk showed. The broadcast- er said a dozen ambulances and two helicopters had been sent to the scene.

Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said 11 police officers were killed and 78 were wounded.

Photographs broadcast by channel NTV showed a large three-story building reduced to its concrete shell, with no walls or windows, and surrounded by gray rubble.

Syrian incursion

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said the IS group, the PKK and Syrian Kurdish YPG militia were attacking Turkey to take advantage of last month’s coup attempt, although he did not specifically refer to the Cizre attack. “Turkey is in an intense fight against terrorist organizations ... The PKK/ YPG and Islamic State seized the July 15 coup attempt as an opportunity,” he said.

Turkish forces, tanks and warplanes launched their first major incursion into Syria on Wednesday, in an operation President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said is aimed at driving the IS group away from the border area and preventing territorial gains by the YPG.

Turkey views the YPG as an extension of the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Ankara 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.