Trump ‘has identified eight potential targets’ for air strikes in Syria
Kremlin says US in touch on secure hotline to avoid escalation
PLANNED air strikes on Syria are being co-ordinated with Russia it has emerged,
The US has identified eight potential targets in Syria, it was reported last night as the Kremlin claimed a secure hotline for the US and Russia to communicate over their operations in Syria was “active” and being used by both sides.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, expects allied forces to reveal the location of the targets in advance to avoid bloodshed and restrict damage to legitimate military assets.
According to reports in the US, the targets selected include two Syrian airfields, a research centre and a chemical weapons facility.
The strikes would be in response to last Saturday’s attack on Douma, the last rebel-held town in Eastern Ghouta, where Syrian government forces raised their flag yesterday, taking full control in a major victory for Bashar al-Assad, the president.
US President Donald Trump yesterday confirmed he was holding meetings on Syria and expected to make decisions “fairly soon”.
On Wednesday, Mr Trump said missiles “will be coming” in response to the gas attack in the Syrian town of Douma and lambasted Moscow for standing by Syrian leader Bashar Assad.
“Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all!” Mr Trump wrote in a tweet yesterday.
Later, he said: “We’re having a number of meetings today, we’ ll see what happens. Now we have to make some ... decisions, so they’ll be made fairly soon.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said France had proof the Syrian government carried out the attack near Damascus, which aid groups have said killed dozens of people, and will decide whether to strike back when all the necessary information has been gathered.
“We have proof that last week ... chemical weapons were used, at least with chlorine, and that they were used by the regime of Bashar Assad,” Mr Macron said, without offering details of any evidence. “We will need to take decisions in due course, when we judge it most useful and effective,” Mr Macron told broadcaster TF1.
British Prime Minister Theresa May held a special cabinet meeting to weigh whether the UK should join in any possible military action. She has cast the attack in Douma, which was held at the time by rebels, as barbaric.
Syria and its backers, Russia and Iran, have said reports of the attack were fabricated by rebels and rescue workers in Douma and have accused the United States of seeking to use it as a pretext to attack the Syrian government.
No decision
In Washington, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis told Congress he believed there was a chemical attack in Syria, but added a short while later that the United States had not made any decision to launch military action in Syria.
NBC News reported that US officials obtained blood and urine samples from victims of the Douma attack that tested positive for chemicals, mainly for chlorine and some for a nerve agent. The officials said they were “confident” in the intelligence though not 100pc sure, NBC News said on its website.
A team of experts from the global chemical weapons watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, was traveling to Syria and will start their investigations tomorrow, the Netherlands-based agency said.
It was not clear whether Mr Trump and US allies would wait for the results of the investigation before deciding on a possible strike.
Russia, Mr Assad’s most
important ally in his sevenyear-old war with rebels, said it deployed military police in Douma yesterday after the town was taken over by government forces. “They are the guarantors of law and order in the town,” RIA news agency quoted Russia’s defence ministry as saying.
There were signs of a global effort to head off a direct confrontation between Russia and the West.
There was no direct word from Russian President Vladimir Putin on the crisis, though he discussed the situation with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan by phone yesterday, Interfax news agency said.
The Russian foreign ministry said Moscow sought no escalation of the situation, but could not support “dishonest accusations” and had found no evidence of a chemical weapons attack in Douma.