3 killed in car bomb attack on police station in Turkey

At least 73 other people 53 civilians and 20 police officers were wounded, officials said.

But Van, a city with a mixed Kurdish and Turkish population and a popular tourist destination, has generally been spared the worst of attacks like those seen in the nearby city of Diyarbakir. Officials said earlier 146 people were wounded and 14 of them were in serious condition.

“The (Gulen movement) has lost its assertiveness and has handed over the duty to the (PKK)”, Yildirim said. It is the fifth explosion in the past two weeks to target police offices in southeastern and eastern Turkey.

Images on Turkish television showed severe damage to the building, with a large plume of black smoke rising from the headquarters.

Last night three people were killed and 40 were wounded in a separate auto bomb attack on a police station in Van, near the Iranian border.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack in Van, a largely Kurdish province on the Iranian border.

About the PKK terrorist group, the defense minister said the PKK must realize the Turkish Republic was now much more powerful today than it was on the night of the July 15.

The mainly Kurdish southeast has been embroiled in violence since a ceasefire between the state and the PKK collapsed in July a year ago.

First, vehicle bomb exploded outside a police station in the eastern Turkish city of Van, according to Turkish state news agency Anadolu. Rights groups say about 400 civilians have also been killed.

The wave of attacks come as Turkey is focused on a clampdown on suspected followers of a movement led by US -based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, which the government accuses of orchestrating a failed military coup last month, that killed at least 270 people.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in violence since the PKK, which wants greater autonomy for Turkey’s 15 million Kurds, formed in 1984.