Erdogan says Assad a ‘more advanced terrorist’ than IS

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declares Saturday that Syrian President Bashar Assad is a “more advanced terrorist” than the Islamic State group, despite the deadly attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport that Turkish officials blame on IS.

Speaking in the town of Kilis near the border with Syria, Erdogan says the Syrian leader is responsible for the deaths of some 600,000 of his own citizens and is the root cause of the war in Syria.

“He is a more advanced terrorist than a terrorist from the PYD or the YPG,” Erdogan says. “He is a more advanced terrorist than Daesh.” Erdogan was referring to Syrian Kurdish militia, which Ankara accuses of being a terror organization because of their affiliation with Turkey’s Kurdish rebels, and to the IS group by its Arabic name.

— AP