US fires cruise missiles into Syria over gassing
Moscow had been hoping to cooperate with Trump to jointly fight Islamic State in Syria
The United States fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Syria Thursday night in a massive retaliatory strike against the horrific sarin nerve gas attack that killed more than 70 people, a third of them children, earlier in the week.
The missiles targeted an airfield used by Syrian government aircraft that had dropped the bombs carrying gas on Idlib province, and they were fired late on Thursday around the time President Donald Trump was meeting president Xi Jinping.
President Trump announced the strikes in a statement, saying it was in “vital national security interest of the US to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons”.
Here is the full text of his remarks:
“On Tuesday Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical attack on innocent civilians using a deadly nerve agent. Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many.
“Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered at this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror. Tonight I ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched.
“It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons. There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and ignored the urging of the UN Security Council.
“Numerous previous attempts at changing Assad’s behavior have all found and failed very dramatically. As a result, the refugee crisis continues to deepen and the region continues to destabilize, threatening the United States and its allies.
“Tonight I call on all civilised nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria and also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types.
“We asked for God’s wisdom as we face the challenge of our very troubled world. We pray for the lives of the wounded and for the souls of those who passed. And we hope as long as America stands for justice and peace and harmony will in the end prevail. Good night and God Bless America and the entire world.”
The strike targeted Shayrat Airfield in Homs and used Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said in a statement, launched from destroyers USS Porter and USS Ross in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
A total of 59 missiles targeted aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage, ammunition supply bunkers, air defense systems, and radars, he added.
The Pentagon believes Shayrat Airfield was used to store chemical weapons and Syrian air forces and the US intelligence community assessed that aircraft from Shayrat conducted the chemical weapons attack on April 4.
“The strike was intended to deter the regime from using chemical weapons again,” Davis said.
President Vladimir Putin condemned US cruise missile strikes on Syria as illegal on Friday, warning the move would further damage already battered US-Russia relations which Moscow had hoped US President Donald Trump would revive.
The US fired a barrage of 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian government’s Shayrat air base in response to a suspected chemical attack on rebel-held Khan Sheikhoun town in Idlib province on Tuesday, which killed over 80 dead. The attack has been widely blamed on the Damascus regime.
US officials said they had informed Russian forces ahead of the strikes — intended to punish the Syrian government for what they say was a chemical weapons attack earlier this week — and had avoided hitting Russian personnel.
Satellite imagery suggests the air base struck is home to Russian special forces and military helicopters, part of the Kremlin’s effort to help the Syrian government fight Islamic State and other militant groups.
Russia’s main air base and a naval facility were not hit.
Moscow had been hoping to cooperate with Trump to jointly fight Islamic State in Syria, a move it was banking on to boost US-Russia ties which are at a post-Cold War low.
After the missile strikes, that task now looks harder.
“President Putin views the US strikes on Syria as aggression against a sovereign state in violation of the norms of international law and on a made-up up pretext,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
“This step by Washington will inflict major damage on US-Russia ties.”
US STRIKE ‘FOOLISH, IRRESPONSIBLE’
The US missile strike was “foolish and irresponsible,” President Bashar al-Assad’s office said.
“What America did is nothing but foolish and irresponsible behaviour, which only reveals its short-sightedness and political and military blindness to reality,” a statement said.
The Syrian government has categorically denied accusations that it carried out the Khan Sheikhoun attack, saying it had struck an arms depot belonging to a jihadist group.
Assad’s office said the government would redouble its efforts against rebel groups after the US strike — the first direct military action by Washington against the Damascus regime.