Pentagon: A serious blow for Assad’s chemical weapons capabilities,
Syria regime ‘will think hard before making another chemical attack’
One hundred and five guided missiles launched at three targets in “the heart of the Syrian chemical weapons programme” early yesterday have degraded the Syrian regime’s ability to use such weapons again, the US said.
The co-ordinated campaign by the US, UK and France was launched from ships, a submarine and warplanes, and was aimed at a research centre, two chemical weapons plants and a regime command centre in response to the use of chemical weapons in rebel-held Douma exactly a week ago.
The air strikes, most with Tomahawk cruise missiles, were launched within minutes of each other at 4am local time in Syria.
They were announced by US President Donald Trump in a televised statement from the White House after a week of deliberations inside the US administration.
The Pentagon said the three main targets were successfully hit.
Lt Gen Kenneth McKenzie, director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, said the US-led air strikes against Syria has been “a very serious blow”. They were precise, overwhelming and effective, Gen McKenzie said.
“As of right now, we’re not aware of any civilian casualties,” he said in a briefing yesterday. “All of the options looked at ways to balance minimising collateral damage against maximum effect. These three targets seemed to hit the sweet spot and do that.”
But Gen McKenzie said that Syria had fired about 40 unguided surface-to-air missiles, most of which were not launched until after the allied strike was over. These missiles may have come down in populated areas, he said.
“When you shoot iron into the air without guidance, it’s going to come down somewhere,” Gen McKenzie said.
The allies of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad said earlier that the buildings hit had been evacuated in advance.
The first target was the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Centre near Damascus, the second a chemical weapons storage centre west of Homs, assessed to be the primary location of the nerve agent sarin and production equipment, and the third was a chemical weapons storage centre and military command post.
Russia had promised to respond to any attack on its ally, and its military said that Syrian air defence systems managed to intercept 71 cruise missiles.
But the Pentagon said the US had “de-confliction” contacts with Russia before and after the strikes, Syrian air defence systems had been largely ineffective and there was no indication that Russian systems had been used.
Gen McKenzie said that none “of our aircraft or missiles involved in this operation were successfully engaged by Syrian air defences”.
He said that “the Syrian response was remarkably ineffective in all domains”.
US officials said the operation was carried out by three US destroyers, a French frigate and a US submarine. The vessels were in the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf and the eastern Mediterranean.
The US Air Force fired airlaunched
cruise missiles from B-1 bombers, and French and British planes also fired cruise missiles toward the targets.
The prime target of the operation was the Barza Research and Development Centre in the greater Damascus area, which Gen McKenzie said
was “one of the most heavily defended aerospace areas in the world”.
Barza took the brunt of the fire, with 57 Tomahawk cruise missiles and 19 joint air-to-surface missiles.
Ten hours after the missiles hit, smoke was still rising from the remains of a research facility, Reuters reported.
This military base was a Syrian centre for the research, development, production and testing of chemical and biological warfare technology, the US said.
This is the second time the US has struck Mr Al Assad’s chemical network. In April last year, Mr Trump ordered an attack against Shayrat airbase after Syrian aircraft from there dropped bombs containing sarin.
About 58 missiles hit the aircraft and chemical weapons plant at the base.
Despite severely damaging the infrastructure with the strikes, Gen McKenzie said the Pentagon would not rule out that the Assad government still had capability to use such weapons again.
“There’s still a residual element of the Syrian programme that’s out there,” he said. “I’m not going to say that they’re going to be unable to continue to conduct a chemical attack in the future.
“I suspect, however, they’ll think long and hard about it.”
The options looked at minimising collateral damage against maximum effect. These targets hit the sweet spot LT GEN KENNETH MCKENZIE Chiefs of Staff director, the Pentagon