Southeast Turkey car bomb kills 9, wounds 64

The blast comes only six days after 50 people were killed and 69 wounded by an explosion at a Kurdish wedding.

By REUTERS
Updated: AUGUST 26, 2016 12:04
Man sits in front of Turkish flag hours after coup in Turkey thwarted (photo credit: REUTERS)
Man sits in front of Turkish flag hours after coup in Turkey thwarted
(photo credit: REUTERS)
ANKARA  - A car bomb explosion rocked a police headquarters in the town of Cizre in Turkey on Friday, killing nine people and wounding dozens, sources said, in the latest in a spate of attacks in the country's turbulent south east.
News channel NTV showed large plumes of smoke billowing from the site which it said was a police checkpoint. Cizre is located in Sirnak, a province that borders both Syria and Iraq and has a largely Kurdish population.
Ambulances rushed to the scene and hospital sources said at least nine people were killed and 64 wounded.
State-run Anadolu Agency blamed the attack on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has been involved in almost daily clashes in the region since last July, when a ceasefire between it and the government collapsed. The town has since been ravaged by heavy fighting between government troops and Kurdish fighters.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died since the rebels took up arms in 1984.
On Thursday Interior Minister Efkan Ala accused the group of attacking a convoy carrying the main opposition party leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
The government 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. 
The blast comes only six days after 50 people were killed and 69 wounded by an explosion at a Kurdish wedding in the southern Turkish town of Gaziantep.
The suicide bomber, thought to be a boy between 12 to 14 years old, detonated his explosives among people dancing on the street.
Islamic State has been blamed for suicide bombings on Kurdish gatherings in the past as militants try to stir ethnic tensions.
Turkey is still raw after an attempted coup on July 15 which Ankara blames on US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen. He has denied the charge.
Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbul's main airport in June, then the deadliest in a string of attacks in Turkey this year.
In October last year, suicide bombers killed at least 95 people when they attacked a rally of pro-Kurdish and labor activists outside Ankara's main train station.