Strikes in Syria bring heated response
US AND ITS ALLIES RAIN DOWN MISSILES ON THREE SELECTED TARGETS
>> WASHINGTON: Military strikes launched by the United States, France and Britain against Syria to punish President Bashar al-Assad for an apparent chemical attack has stirred up angry responses from Syria’s allies and ignited a debate over whether the attacks were justified.
The US and its allies struck suspected Syrian chemical weapons facilities yesterday in retaliation for a “clear violation” of international law, but experts warned they were on dubious legal ground themselves in carrying out the unilateral action.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the alleged use of chemicals last weekend in the rebel-held city of Douma was a blatant breach of several resolutions taken against Syria by the UN Security Council.
British Prime Minister Theresa May also called the strikes “right and legal”, saying the international community would not tolerate use of chemical weapons.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the Friday night raids as aggression that will make the humanitarian crisis in Syria worse and called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations’ Security Council. Mr Putin added the strike had a “destructive influence on the entire system of international relations”.
Pentagon officials said the attacks targeted the heart of Mr Assad’s programmes to develop and produce chemical weapons.
Syrian television reported that Syria’s air defences, which are substantial, responded to the attack. Syrians poured into the streets for defiant demonstrations to highlight national pride.
Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said there were no reports of US losses in what he described as a heavy but carefully limited assault.
President Donald Trump said the US is prepared to sustain economic, diplomatic and military pressure on Mr Assad until he ends what the president called a criminal pattern of killing his own people with internationally banned chemical weapons. The allied attack set off a fierce international debate about whether it was justified.
Mr Putin yesterday reaffirmed Russia’s view that a purported chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma that prompted the strike was a fake. Mr Putin added Russian military experts who inspected Douma found no trace of the attack. He criticised the US and its allies for launching the strike without waiting for inspectors from the international chemical weapons watchdog to visit the area.
The Syria attack drew support from the European Union, Germany, Israel and other allies while Ms May said reports indicate the Syrian government used a barrel bomb to deliver the chemicals.
Mr Mattis said the assault was a “onetime shot”, so long as Mr Assad does not repeat his use of chemical weapons. The strikes were carried out by manned aircraft and from ships that launched cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea. Mr Mattis disclosed the US had not yet confirmed the attack included the use of sarin gas. He said at least one chemical was used — chlorine — which also has legitimate industrial uses and had not previously triggered a US military response.
He said the targets selected by US, British and French officials were meant to minimise civilian casualties.
“This is difficult to do in a situation like this,” he said, in light of the volatility of chemical agents.
Defence officials from the countries involved in the attack gave differing accounts of how much warning was given to the Russians, Syria’s powerful ally.
Gen Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the US did not coordinate targets with or notify the Russian government of the strikes, beyond normal airspace “de-confliction” communications.
But French Defence Minister Florence Parly said that “with our allies, we ensured that the Russians were warned ahead of time”.
At a Pentagon news conference alongside Mr Mattis and with British and French military officers beside them to emphasise allied unity, Gen Dunford said the attacks targeted mainly three targets in western Syria.
Gen Dunford said missiles first struck a scientific research centre in the Damascus area that was at the heart of Syrian research, development, production and testing of chemical and biological warfare technology. The second target was a chemical weapons storage facility west of Homs. He said this was believed to be the main site of Syrian sarin and precursor chemical production equipment.
The third target was a chemical weapons equipment storage facility and an important command post, also west of Homs, Gen Dunford said.
British leader Ms May said in London that the West had tried “every possible” diplomatic means to stop Mr Assad from using chemical weapons. “But our efforts have been repeatedly thwarted by Syria and Russia”, she said.
“So there is no practicable alternative to the use of force to degrade and deter the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime,” Ms May said. “This is not about intervening in a civil war. It is not about regime change”.
French President Macron said a target of the strike was the Syrian government’s “clandestine chemical arsenal”.
The Syrian government has denied using banned weapons.
The decision to strike, after days of deliberations, marked Mr Trump’s second order to attack Syria. He authorised a barrage of cruise missiles to hit a single Syrian airfield in April 2017 in retaliation for Mr Assad’s use of sarin gas against civilians.
>> US President Donald Trump has branded President Bashar al-Assad’s alleged gas attacks as the “crimes of a monster”.
Mr Trump announced the action against Mr Assad’s regime in a White House address, defying fierce warnings from Damascus ally Russia.
A few minutes later, an AFP correspondent in Damascus heard a series of huge blasts and residents rushed to their balconies.
For about 45 minutes, explosions echoed and the sound of warplanes roared over the city, as flashes flared in the distance.
As dawn broke, plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the city’s north and east.
In the biggest foreign military action so far against Syria’s regime, Western officials said a barrage of cruise and air-to-land missiles hit targets near Damascus and in Homs province including a scientific research centre, storage facilities and a command post.
Mr Trump had suggested US military action could be on a large scale, but yesterday’s attacks were narrowly targeted and the facilities hit had reportedly been evacuated in recent days.
Syrian state media reported only three people injured and Russia’s defence ministry said there were “no victims” among Syrian civilians and military personnel.
Mr Trump left no doubt the strikes were a direct response to an alleged April 7 chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Douma that rescuers and monitors say killed more than 40 people.
“The evil and the despicable attack left mothers and fathers, infants and children thrashing in pain and gasping for air. These are not the actions of a man. They are crimes of a monster instead,” Mr Trump said.
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said no additional strikes were planned for now. “Right now this is a one-time shot,” he said.
Syria’s regime, which has repeatedly denied any use of chemical weapons, immediately denounced the strikes as a “brutal, barbaric aggression” that was “doomed to fail”.
Russia said it was calling an emergency session of the UN Security Council to discuss the “aggressive actions” of the United States and its allies.
“Without the sanction of the UN Security Council, in breach of the UN charter and the norms and principles of international law, an act of aggression was committed against a sovereign state,” the Kremlin said.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also denounced the leaders of the United States, France and Britain as “criminals”.
Joseph Dunford, Washington’s top general, said Syrian surface-to-air missile batteries had attempted to fire back, but there were no initial reports of losses, he added.
The Russian military said the allies had fired 103 cruise missiles including Tomahawk missiles but that Syrian air defence systems managed to intercept 71 of them. The US said it was too early to tell.
At a rally in central Damascus, 48-yearold Nedher Hammoud claimed to have seen missiles “being shot down like flies”.
“Let them do what they want, kill who they want ... history will record that Syria shot down missiles — and not just missiles. It shot down American arrogance.”
The impromptu early morning rally saw crowds of people heading to the famed Umayyad Square to show their support for Mr Assad.
Draped in government flags and blaring patriotic tunes, dozens of Syrians arrived on bicycles, on foot and in cars spray painted with the red, white, and black colours of the Syrian flag.
Inspectors with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons were due later yesterday to start work on a probe into the events of April 7 in Douma, the last rebel-held pocket of the onetime opposition stronghold of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus.
The Jaish al-Islam rebel group in control of Douma said the attack forced them to agree to a Russia-brokered evacuation deal, paving the way for Syria’s government to secure Eastern Ghouta.
Mohammad Alloush, a key member of Jaish al-Islam, said yesterday the Western strikes had not gone far enough.
“Punishing the instrument of the crime while keeping the criminal — a farce,” Mr Alloush wrote on Twitter.
Syrian state media reported that internal security forces had entered Douma on yesterday and that the town would be secured within hours.
The strikes had been expected since harrowing footage surfaced of the aftermath of the attack in Douma.
The graphic footage prompted a furious reaction from Mr Trump.
Mr Trump’s anger was shared by France’s President Emmanuel Macron, who signed his country up for a joint response.
“We cannot tolerate the normalisation of the use of chemical weapons,” Mr Macron said.
France said it fired cruise missiles from frigates in the Mediterranean and deployed fighter jets from home bases as part of its strikes.
Britain’s defence ministry said that four British Tornado jets had fired Storm Shadow missiles at a base 25 kilometres west of Homs city.
“This collective action sends a clear message that the international community will not stand by and tolerate the use of chemical weapons,” Prime Minister Theresa May said after the strikes.