Bomb attack in eastern Turkey kills 12 police

A masked Turkish police officers secures a road as police conduct a security operation in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2015.

Twelve Turkish police officers were killed in a bomb attack on a minibus in the eastern Turkish province of Igdir on Tuesday, a government official said.

The attack targeted a minibus carrying police working in the Igdir region of eastern Turkey at the Dilucu border gate marking the border with Azerbaijan, security sources told AFP. Three others were wounded.

This is the second deadliest attack of the current flare-up in unrest after 16 Turkish soldiers were killed at the weekend in the Kurdish-dominated southeast.

In response to that attack, Turkish warplanes launched a massive air operation early Tuesday against PKK targets, killing as many as 40 rebels.

The Turkish government vowed to eradicate PKK rebels after the attack.