BORIS BLASTS BEAST ASSAD ‘Gassing monster must go’
BORIS Johnson warned tyrant Bashar Assad he must “pay a price” if his forces unleashed a deadly gas attack.
Twenty children died in a massacre in which it is now believed 72 victims perished.
And as world outrage grew, the Foreign Secretary yesterday hinted at military action against Syrian president Mr Assad if his regime was responsible for the carnage.
Britain and France have called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
Mr Johnson, arriving at an aid conference for war-torn Syria in Brussels, said he had seen “absolutely nothing to suggest” the toxic gas attack in the rebelheld town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province was carried out by anyone else.
He said: “All the evidence I have seen – and there may be more to come out of this – suggests that this was the Assad ® regime who did it in the full knowledge that they were using illegal weapons in a barbaric attack on their own people.
“I would like to see those culpable pay a price for this.”
Horrific footage taken during the aftermath of the assault showed civilians, many of them children, choking and foaming at the mouth.
Witnesses said clinics treating the injured were then targeted by air strikes.
The Syrian regime has blamed its opponents for the attack. Russia said the town was exposed to chemicals from a rebel arsenal in a factory hit by a Syrian air strike. Downing Street has played down the prospect of military action, saying “nobody is talking” of an armed response.
But Mr Johnson added: “You cannot go on with a regime that’s willing to use illegal weapons against its own people.”