11 policemen killed in Turkey truck bombing

Istanbul, August 26

Eleven Turkish police officers were killed and 78 people injured today in a suicide truck bombing by suspected Kurdish rebels, three days into a two-pronged Turkish offensive against jihadists and Kurdish militia in neighbouring Syria.

The blast almost completely destroyed the police headquarters in the southeastern town of Cizre, just north of the Syrian border. 

“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. Eleven police officers were killed and 78 people injured, three of them civilians, the statement added.

Health Minister Recep Akdag said four people were in critical condition. The explosion went off hours after the Turkish military shelled positions held by Kurdish militia inside Syria.

Turkey says its three-day-old operation in Syria — its biggest to date in its war-torn neighbour - is aimed both at Islamic State and the Kurdish People's Protection Units militia leading the fight against IS in the area. — AFP