Multiple targets hit in Syria strike

Syrian air defence proves weak to counter incoming missiles, Russia claims many were shot down

Washington, April 14: The US-French-British air strikes against Syrian President Bashar alAssad’s chemical weapons facilities hit multiple targets using an array of munitions, a US defence official said.

“Multiple targets, multiple types of munition,” the official said.

Among the weapons used are Tomahawk cruise missiles, the official added.

The “precise, overwhelming and effective” military strike in Syria was aimed to “cripple” the chemical weapons infrastructure of the Syrian regime and it succeeded in destroying three chemical weapons facilities in the war-torn country, the Pentagon said on Saturday.

The Pentagon said it destroyed three chemical weapons facilities of the Syrian regime. Marine Lt Gen Kenneth F McKenzie director, Joint Staff, told reporters that the US, France and Britain in all deployed 105 missiles against three targets. “Taken together were able to overwhelm the Syrian air defence system,” he said.

The US assesses that the Syrians fired about 40 missiles in retaliation, but none of them endangered the US forces and its allies. Defensive effort of Syria was ineffective, he said.

The Syrian regime had a pattern of using chemical weapons against the chemical weapons convention, alleged the Pentagon chief spokesperson Dana White. “This is a heinous regime, which murders its people daily,” she said.

“We are confident that we have significantly degraded the ability to ever use the chemical weapons again,” White said, asserting that the US policy on Syria has not changed.

“Our mission in Syria remains the same, to defeat the Islamic State and not be involved in the civil war,” it said, adding that the US is 100 per cent behind the Geneva peace process. — AFP