Air raids an act of aggression: Putin

moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin has denounced a US-led air strike on Syria as an “act of aggression” that will exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria.

In a statement issued by the Kremlin, the Russian leader said Moscow called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations’ Security Council over the strike launched by the United States, Britain and France.

Putin added that the strike had a “destructive influence on the entire system of international relations”.

Putin added that 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.

In a statement, the Syrian military said the attacks would not diminish the army’s resolve to press the fight against all remaining militants in the country.

The army said nearly 110 missiles hit targets in the capital Damascus and other areas, and air defence systems brought most of them down.

“Such attacks will not deter our armed forces and allied forces from persisting to crush what is left of the armed terrorist groups,” the military said.

Damascus, with key allies Russia and Iran, have lambasted reports of the suspected gas attack as bogus.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the US-led missile attack on Syria would lead to more destruction in the Middle East, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.

“Such attacks will have no result but more destruction … the Americans want to justify their presence in the region by such attacks,” Tasnim quoted Mr Rouhani as saying. And in a statement, Iraqi’s foreign ministry said the air strikes marked a “a very dangerous development”. — AP, Reuters