Tensions rise in Syria as Israel is accused of bombing air base
HOLDING ASSAD ACCOUNTABLE US, France, UK urge strong response to reports of gas attacks by Syria govt
Syria and Russia accused Israel on Monday of carrying out a deadly bombing raid on a Syrian military airport, as calls grew for international action over an alleged chemical attack on a rebel held-town.
Britain was the latest country to urge a “strong” response to accusations that dozens of people were killed by poison gas in Douma, a battered oppositionheld town near the capital.
The escalating pressure came as Damascus and Moscow blamed Israel for an early morning missile strike on Syria’s T-4 airbase.
Syrian state news agency SANA said Israeli F-15 aircraft had fired several missiles at the base from Lebanese territory.
Russia’s army said a pair of Israeli F-15s had fired eight missiles at the base. Five were destroyed by air defence systems but three hit a western part of the facility, it said.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called the raid a “very dangerous development”.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the country’s conflict, said 14 fighters were killed, including Syrian army officers and Iranian forces.
Forces from regime backers Russia and Iran, as well as fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, are known to have a presence at T-4, said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.
Both Washington and Paris denied carrying out Monday’s raid.
Israel has previously targeted Iranian units in Syria, but declined to comment on the latest strike.
US forces a year ago fired a volley of cruise missiles at the government’s Shayrat air base in retaliation for another suspected chemical attack in April 2017.
Syria has been accused multiple times of using toxic weapons including sarin gas in the country’s seven-year war, which has killed more than 350,000 people.
Pressure was mounting over the latest accusations that it killed dozens of people on Saturday with a toxic gas attack on Douma, the last rebel-held town in the Eastern Ghouta suburb of the capital.
Rescuers and medics said at least 48 people died after showing symptoms consistent with exposure to “poisonous chlorine gas,” including foaming at the mouth and difficulty breathing.
British foreign secretary Boris Johnson on Monday called for a “strong and robust international response” to the attack, after similar calls by Paris and Washington.
US President Donald Trump had warned there would be a “big price to pay” for the attack, and had vowed with French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to react strongly. The French presidency said the two leaders shared information “confirming” the use of chemical weapons and would coordinate their efforts at a UN Security Council meeting which was scheduled for Monday.
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