Assad could see U.S. strike as just a ‘slap on the wrist’

USA- A U.S. cruise missile attack on a Syrian air base may persuade President Bashar alAssad to be more cautious with some of his tactics, but will not deter him and his allies from pressing a full-throttle military campaign to crush rebels. It was the first time Washington has directly targeted Assad’s government in six years of civil war, and has pushed the administration of President Donald Trump into proclaiming that Washington still wants Assad removed from power. But the single volley of Tomahawk missiles was of such limited scope that it will reinforce the view held by Damascus and its allies that the United States is no more eager than before to take the sort of strong action needed to defeat him. “Assad now knows there is a red line with regard to the use of chemical weapons. But I think he also probably just sees it as a slap on the wrist,” said David Lesch, professor of Middle East history at Trinity University and an author on Syria. “Assad has to recalibrate but not fundamentally change his military approach that they’ve been engaging in since the Russian intervention,” Lesch said. “I really believe they are not feeling too bad today, if this is the extent of what the U.S. is going to do.” Damascus denies carrying out the chemical attack that provoked the U.S. response. The attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in the rebelheld province of Idlib near the Turkish border killed at least 87 people, 31 of them children.Assad has responded with characteristic defiance, vowing to accelerate efforts to wipe out rebels he calls terrorists. A joint command center representing his Russian, Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah allies said the U.S. attack would only cause them to redouble their support for the Syrian government. Air strikes have continued unabated since the U.S. attack on Friday. Eighteen people were reportedly killed in one strike alone in Idlib on Saturday. Though damaged, the Shayrat air base near Homs is partly operational and flights have taken off. The base was largely evacuated before the U.S. strikes, after Washington forewarned Moscow, which in turn alerted the Syrian government, according to a senior military source in the alliance fighting in support of Assad. Describing the U.S. attack as a “limited strike” that was quickly over, another senior ally of Assad in the region said toppling him did not seem to be a priority for Trump. “There is still no clear American policy on Syria,” he said. Though the attack had shown Trump to be unpredictable, a third official in the pro-Assad alliance did not yet see a major shift in the U.S. approach.

(Reuters.com)