Erdogan supports strikes on Syrian chemical facilities


Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has welcomed the combined strikes on Syria’s alleged chemical facilities, saying that the operation sent a message to his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad.

The US and its allies, Britain and France, carried out a wave of strikes against Assad’s government on Saturday, a week after a suspected deadly gas attack on the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Douma.

The White Helmets, a local civil defense agency, accused the Assad government of carrying out the gas attack, which is believed to have killed 85 civilians, including children, and injured hundreds of others.

“With the joint operation by US, UK and France … the Syrian regime received the message that its massacres wouldn’t be left unanswered,” Erdogan told his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) supporters in a meeting on Saturday in Istanbul.