ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday blamed the Syrian government for a suspected chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of people including children, calling President Bashar Assad a “murderer.”
“Hey murderer Assad, how are you going to escape from their curse?” Erdogan said at a rally in the western city of Bursa, referring to the victims.
At least 72 people, among them 20 children, were killed in Tuesday’s attack in rebel-held Khan Sheikhun, and dozens more were left gasping for air, convulsing and foaming at the mouth, doctors said.
Erdogan, in his first public reaction to the incident, said that over 100 people, including children, “became martyrs due to chemical weapons.”
The World Health Organization said there was reason to suspect a chemical attack, with some victims displaying symptoms suggesting exposure to “a category of chemicals that includes nerve agents.”
The UN Security Council was meeting Wednesday to discuss a draft resolution presented by Britain, France and the United States that urges a swift investigation into the attack.
Erdogan, a vocal critic of Assad, also denounced the world’s “silence” on the killings.
“Hey, the world that remains silent, the United Nations that remains silent. How will you be brought to account for this?” Erdogan said.
Russia, Assad’s main ally, has said a Syrian air strike had hit a “terrorist warehouse.” Erdogan made no reference to the Russian claim.
Turkey said Wednesday that about 30 people were being treated in Turkish hospitals after the attack, adding that it had evidence the strike was caused by chemical weapons.
The wounded were brought from Idlib through Turkey’s Cilvegozu border gate for the treatment in the Reyhanli district of Turkey’s southern Hatay Province.
“We are doing our best but that’s not enough,” he said. “They are our kids, our brothers. I am sad as a father.”
Erdogan: 'Hey murderer Assad, how are you going to escape from their curse?'
Erdogan: 'Hey murderer Assad, how are you going to escape from their curse?'
German prosecutors seize assets in Lebanon bank fraud probe
- They allege that Salameh, acting with his brother Raja, “embezzled funds totalling more than $330 million”
- The money was laundered through a shell company in the British Virgin Islands
BERLIN: German prosecutors said Thursday they had seized assets worth around 35 million euros ($42 million) as part of a money-laundering probe targeting Lebanon’s former central bank governor Riad Salameh and four other people.
Salameh headed Lebanon’s central bank between 1993 and 2023 and has faced numerous accusations including embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion in separate probes in Lebanon and abroad.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
Prosecutors in Munich said in a statement that “high-value commercial properties in Munich and Hamburg, as well as shares in a real estate company in Duesseldorf” had been seized as part of their investigation.
They allege that Salameh, acting with his brother Raja, “embezzled funds totalling more than $330 million to the detriment of the Lebanese central bank and thereby at the expense of the Lebanese state, in order to illegally enrich himself” between 2004 and 2015.
The funds originated from financial transactions between the Lebanese central bank and commercial banks in Lebanon.
The money was laundered through a shell company in the British Virgin Islands and used by Raja Salameh and three other co-accused for investments in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, prosecutors say.
A court in Munich will now decide whether the seized property can be permanently confiscated.
German prosecutors opened their investigation in 2021 and have been working with investigators from France and Luxembourg.
Salameh has been accused of being a key culprit in Lebanon’s economic crash, which the World Bank has called one of the worst in recent history, but he has defended his legacy and insisted he is a “scapegoat.”
He was arrested in Lebanon in 2024 and indicted in April 2025 for allegedly embezzling $44 million from the central bank.
In September he was freed after posting more than $14 million in bail and on condition of a one-year travel ban.
