Five killed in new car bomb attack at Turkish police station

Turkish police officers stand guard. File picture

Kurdish rebels detonated a car bomb at a police station in south-eastern Turkey then attacked it with rocket launchers and firearms, killing five people, including civilians.

Thirty-nine other people were injured.

The attack on Wednesday night targeted the police station in the town of Cinar, in the mostly-Kurdish Diyarbakir province, and police lodgings at the compound, the Diyarbakir governor's office said. The force of the blast caused a house close to the police station to collapse.

The attack killed two people at the police lodgings and three people died inside the collapsed house.

Another police station was also attacked with rocket launchers in Midyat, a town in the province of Mardin, the state-run Anadolu Agency said, in what appeared to be a simultaneous assault. No casualties were reported there.

The attack came a day after a suicide bomber detonated explosives in Istanbul's main tourist district, killing 10 Germans. Turkish officials say the bomber was affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group.

Clashes between Turkey's security forces and the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, reignited in July, shattering a fragile peace process.

Authorities have since imposed extended curfews in flashpoint neighbourhoods and towns in the mainly Kurdish-populated south-east region of the country as the security forces battle Kurdish militants linked to the PKK.

The militants have mounted barricades, dug trenches and set up explosives to keep authorities away. The operations have resulted in more than a hundred civilian casualties, and displaced thousands, human rights groups say.

The conflict between the government forces and the PKK has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984. The group is considered a terror organization by Turkey and its western allies.