Race to Identify Türkiye Quake Victims

Rescuers carry Muhammed Alkanaas, 12, to an ambulance after they pulled him out five days after the Monday earthquake in Antakya, southern Türkiye, late Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Can Ozer)
Rescuers carry Muhammed Alkanaas, 12, to an ambulance after they pulled him out five days after the Monday earthquake in Antakya, southern Türkiye, late Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Can Ozer)
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Race to Identify Türkiye Quake Victims

Rescuers carry Muhammed Alkanaas, 12, to an ambulance after they pulled him out five days after the Monday earthquake in Antakya, southern Türkiye, late Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Can Ozer)
Rescuers carry Muhammed Alkanaas, 12, to an ambulance after they pulled him out five days after the Monday earthquake in Antakya, southern Türkiye, late Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Can Ozer)

Tuba Yolcu is desperate for news of her missing aunt and scours a sports hall where victims of a powerful earthquake that hit her hometown in Türkiye lie in body bags.

"We hear (the authorities) will no longer keep the bodies waiting after a certain period of time, they say they will take them and bury them," she said.

"God willing we will find her," Yolcu said, with worry etched on her face.

Monday's 7.8-magnitude tremor struck Kahramanmaras in the country's southeast, unleashing catastrophe in the region and Syria, killing at least 28,000 people, AFP said.

Anguished families flock to sports halls, hospital morgues or cemeteries in the severely hit city -- where bodies are piling up -- in a bid to find their missing relatives.

"Every unidentified body will eventually be returned to their family," a prosecutor said, trying to soothe the families.

"Don't worry, blood samples are taken from each and every missing body," he assured.

Families -- who cannot reach their loved ones during the rescue work -- check one by one bodies either in bags or wrapped in blankets.

"We show the faces to their immediate relatives," a crime scene investigator in a hazmat suit told AFP at a large grave outside the city.

Funeral cars deliver a stream of bodies, burying them one by one.

"If the identity is unknown, we take fingerprints and tooth samples and compare them with their relatives," said the investigator, who carries a camera around his neck.

About 2,000 bodies have been identified at the cemetery, which is filled with freshly dug graves.

- 'Let's go back' -
Next to the wooden headstones at the makeshift cemetery, where some are wrapped by scarves, people mourn their relatives.

One woman sits near the grave, unable to stop crying.

Missing bodies are stored lower down, where investigators take pictures and notes.

Yusuf Sekman, from the religious affairs directorate, said the unidentified bodies are also divided according to where their collapsed building was located.

This allows relatives to "also look, based on the recovered body's address", he said.

"Their samples are taken, and noted down on body bags" to help with identification.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Friday he hoped the missing bodies would be identified and said the government was doing everything it could.

"We upload unidentified patients' photographs to a special software in order to match," Koca said.

Unfortunately for Yolcu, her aunt was not at the sports hall since an official said all the bodies have been identified.

When the quake struck, her aunt was in the city but Yolcu was in a village.

"We cannot find her body," she said, adding that she won't stop looking.

As she stepped out of the hall, she turned back to her husband and said: "Let's return to the rubble", hoping that perhaps her aunt had yet to be pulled out.



What We Know about the Man Charged in the Attack in Boulder, Colorado

Law enforcement officers detain a suspect, after an attack that injured multiple people, in Boulder, Colorado, US June 1, 2025, in this picture obtained from social media. X/@OpusObscuraX/via REUTERS
Law enforcement officers detain a suspect, after an attack that injured multiple people, in Boulder, Colorado, US June 1, 2025, in this picture obtained from social media. X/@OpusObscuraX/via REUTERS
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What We Know about the Man Charged in the Attack in Boulder, Colorado

Law enforcement officers detain a suspect, after an attack that injured multiple people, in Boulder, Colorado, US June 1, 2025, in this picture obtained from social media. X/@OpusObscuraX/via REUTERS
Law enforcement officers detain a suspect, after an attack that injured multiple people, in Boulder, Colorado, US June 1, 2025, in this picture obtained from social media. X/@OpusObscuraX/via REUTERS

A man armed with a makeshift flamethrower and other incendiary devices launched a fiery attack on demonstrators in Colorado who were calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Twelve people were injured and the FBI described the violence as a “targeted terror attack.”

The suspect, identified by the FBI as 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, yelled “Free Palestine” during the attack Sunday, according to Mark Michalek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Denver field office. Authorities believe Soliman acted alone.

He has been charged with multiple state counts and a federal a hate crime, the Associated Press said.

How did the attack unfold? Authorities said the attacker targeted volunteers with Run for Their Lives, which organizes running and walking events to call for the immediate release of Israelis being held in Gaza. The hostages were captured by the Hamas group during an incursion into southern Israel in 2023 that precipitated the latest Israel-Hamas war.

The group gathered Sunday at the Pearl Street pedestrian mall, a four-block area in downtown Boulder frequented by tourists and students. Witnesses said the suspect first used the flame thrower, then threw two Molotov cocktails into the crowd. Soliman was arrested at the scene.

Video from the scene shows a shirtless Soliman shouting at onlookers while holding two clear bottles containing a transparent liquid. Another video shows a witness shouting: “He’s right there. He’s throwing Molotov cocktails,” as a police officer with his gun drawn advanced on the suspect.

Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty told reporters Monday that authorities uncovered 16 unused Molotov cocktails.

One witness, Alex Osante, said Soliman appeared to catch himself on fire during the attack. A booking photo shows him with a bandage over one of his ears. Police said he was taken to the hospital after he was arrested but haven’t described his injuries.

What was his motive? Witnesses said Soliman yelled “Free Palestine” as he launched the attack. An FBI affidavit said he confessed to the attack.

He told investigators “he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,” that he specifically targeted the Run for Their Lives group and that he had researched and planned the attack for more than a year, according to the affidavit.

“This act of terror is being investigated as an act of ideologically motivated violence based on the early information, the evidence, and witness accounts. We will speak clearly on these incidents when the facts warrant it,” FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said in a post on X.

The Israel-Hamas war has inflamed global tensions and contributed to a spike in antisemitic violence in the United States. A week earlier, two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot to death in Washington, D.C., by a man who yelled “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza” as he was led away by police.

What charges does Soliman face? Soliman participated in a brief court hearing Monday afternoon via video from the Boulder County jail.

He is charged federally with commission of a hate crime, which carries a sentence of life in prison when the charge includes attempted murder. Colorado state charges include 16 counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of using an incendiary device and 16 counts of attempted use of an incendiary device.

A judge set a $10 million cash-only bond on the state charges.

Additional charges are possible in federal court. The Justice Department plans to seek a grand jury indictment.

Who is Soliman? Soliman was born in Egypt and he moved three years ago to Colorado Springs, where he lived with his wife and five children, according to state court documents. He previously spent 17 years living in Kuwait.

The Department of Homeland Security said Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and has been living in the US illegally since his visa expired in February 2023.

Soliman worked as an Uber driver and had passed the company’s eligibility requirements, which include a criminal background check, according to a spokesperson for Uber.

An online resume under Suliman's name says he was employed by a Denver-area health care company working in accounting and inventory control, with prior employers listed as companies in Egypt.

Who was injured? The people injured in the Pearl Street attack range in age from 52 to 88. Their injuries — some serious and some minor — were consistent with reports of people being set on fire, Redfearn said.

Authorities initially said there were eight victims, but said four others later were identified.

Photos from the scene showed a burning woman lying on the ground in a fetal position and a man helping to put out the flames using a jug of water.

“The immense wave of positive messages we’ve received is another signal of the health and strong spirits of our community,” Rabbi Yisroel and Leah Wilhelm, directors of the Rohr Chabad House at the University of Colorado said in a statement. “We encourage everyone to respond energetically to this attack by celebrating Shavuot joyously, by attending the reading of the Ten Commandments, and by recommitting to the heritage and traditions we hold so dear.”