Suspected Syrian chemical attack is 'savagery': PM

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s prime minister has condemned Tuesday’s "inhumane" suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria which killed more than 100 civilians.

"The inhumane savagery in Idlib, Syria this morning, unfortunately, shocked all of us deeply," Binali Yildirim said at the Prime Ministry office in Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul.

He said Turkey hopes the United Nations will look at the issue seriously and take steps to eliminate all chemical weapons in Syria.

Syrian opposition Health Minister Firas Jundi said earlier Tuesday that more than 100 civilians were killed and 500 others, mostly children, were hurt or injured by a chlorine gas attack carried out by regime warplanes in the town of Khan Shaykun.

Yildirim added that Turkey also hopes the UN will punish the attack’s perpetrators in the name of humanity, adding: "We maintain our hope on this issue, though it be weak."

A cease-fire brokered by Turkey and Russia came into effect in Syria late last year.

Last year, a UN-appointed investigation panel found that chemical weapons had been used by regime forces and opposition fighters in 2014 and 2015. However, no actionable steps were taken.

Chlorine gas in warfare is outlawed by international treaties. High-level exposure can cause suffocation, with children and seniors being particularly vulnerable.

- Kirkuk

Since civil war in Syria erupted in March 2011, more than 250,000 people have been killed, according to the UN. The Syrian Center for Policy Research puts the death toll at more than 470,000.

Saying that Turkey’s region is facing wrenching changes every day, Yildirim added that it is unacceptable for northern Iraq’s Kurdish administration to change the traditional historical structure of Kirkuk to unite with it by ignoring the Arabs and Turkmen who live there.

"Turkey has clearly shown its sensitivity on this issue and our view of Iraq's indivisible integrity," he said.

Last week, 26 Kurdish members of Kirkuk’s provincial assembly voted in favor of raising the flag of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) alongside Iraq’s national flag outside the city’s public buildings and institutions.

But on Saturday, the Iraqi parliament rejected the decision and voted in favor of flying only the Iraqi flag on Kirkuk's buildings.

Kirkuk Governor Najmiddin Karim, however, refused to apply the parliament’s decision to take down the KRG flag.

During the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Kurdish Peshmerga forces seized Kirkuk, prompting an influx of Kurds into the ethnically diverse city.

While Baghdad says Kirkuk is administratively dependent on Iraq’s central government, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan -- an influential political party in the region -- wants to see the city incorporated into northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

Kirkuk’s population is composed mainly of Arab, Turkmen, and Kurdish inhabitants.