Turkey PM vows retaliation after 'vile' attack on police headquarters

Turkey on Friday vowed to retaliate after a suicide truck bombing by suspected Kurdish militants in the southeastern town of Cizre, which killed at least 11 police officers.

Turkish police and firefighters are parked near a damaged police headquarters after a car bomb which killed scores of people Source: Getty

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told a news conference in Istanbul: "We will give those vile (attackers) the answer they deserve."

"No terrorist organisation can hold Turkey captive," he added.

Eleven Turkish police officers were killed and more than 70 other people wounded when a suicide bomber exploded a bomb-laden truck near a four-storey police headquarters, the prime minister said.

"It is one of the treacherous attacks carried out by the vile PKK terrorist organisation," he added.

"Our people should understand and know that we have waged a collective war on terrorist groups," he said.

File image of Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim Source: AAP

Over 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK first took up arms in 1984 with the aim of carving out an independent state for Turkey's Kurdish minority.

It is designated as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (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 ceasefire collapsed more than a year ago.

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 broadcaster said a dozen ambulances and two helicopters had been sent to the scene.

Hospital sources initially told Reuters that nine people were killed and 64 wounded, but an official later said the toll was eight. It was not clear whether the casualties were civilians or police officers.

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

Turkish special forces, tanks and warplanes launched their first major incursion into Syria on Wednesday in support of Syrian rebels, in an operation President Tayyip Erdogan has said is aimed both at driving Islamic State away from the border area and preventing territorial gains by the Kurdish YPG militia.

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. More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died since the rebels took up arms in Turkey in 1984.

Turkish troops fired on YPG fighters in northern Syria on Thursday.

Also on Thursday, Interior Minister Efkan Ala accused the PKK of attacking a convoy carrying the country's 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 PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation 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.