Kurdish militants detonated a car bomb outside a military checkpoint in southeastern Turkey on Sunday, killing 10 soldiers and eight civilians, the prime minister said. Turkey immediately launched a military operation against the rebels in response.

At a news conference in Istanbul, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the attack.

“For the stability of our country, we will continue doing everything we can to save our homeland and our nation from the forces of terrorism,” Mr. Yildirim said.

Cuneyit Orhan Toprak, the governor of Hakkari Province, where the attack took place, told that the private news channel NTV that 27 others were wounded in the attack. Eleven were soldiers, the Turkish military said.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, citing a statement by the Turkish armed forces, said the attack had occurred at 9:45 a.m. outside a checkpoint on the Semdinli-Yuksekova highway and was the work of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K. The checkpoint is 12 miles from the town of Semdinli.

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Image courtesy of AP