Syrian Kurd sets self on fire in front of UN refugee office


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

BERLIN (AP) — Swiss police say a Syrian Kurdish man set himself on fire in front of the United Nations refugee agency's headquarters in Geneva.

Police spokesman Silvain Guillaume-Gentil said the man, who was born in 1988 and lives in Germany, set himself on fire with gasoline Wednesday morning. Security guards doused the flames and the man was then taken by helicopter to a hospital in Lausanne that specializes in treating burns.

Police said they do not know if the man left a political message and that his condition is too critical to question him.

Earlier this month, Turkish troops began a military operation in northern Syria against Kurds there, after the U.S. pulled out troops who had partnered with Syrian Kurdish forces in the war against the Islamic State group.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Most recent World stories

Related topics

World
The Associated Press

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast