Kurdish militants claim deadly car bomb attack in Turkey

A Kurdish suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden truck into a checkpoint near a police station Friday in southeast Turkey, killing at least 11 police officers and wounding 78 other people, the prime minister said.

The attack struck the checkpoint 50 yards from a main police station near the town of Cizre, in the mainly Kurdish Sirnak province that borders Syria. Television footage showed black smoke rising from the mangled truck and the three-story police station gutted.

Rebels linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK claimed the attack — the latest in a string of bombings by the group targeting police or the military.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed to “destroy the terrorists.”

“No terrorist organization can take the Turkish Republic hostage,” he told reporters in Istanbul. “We will give these scoundrels every response they deserve.”