3 strikes...
BLITZ ON ASSAD: MAY’S GAMBLE
RAF fighter jets unleashed their bunker-busting might on Syria yesterday in what could trigger a perilous Russian roulette gamble with Vladimir Putin.
Four Tornados blitzed a chemical weapons storage facility near Homs after Prime Minister Theresa May authorised the strike.
As Top Guns launched eight 900lb Storm Shadow cruise missiles, the US and French bombed two other chemical weapons sites – a nearby bunker and a research centre in Damascus.
Some 105 missiles rained down within a matter of minutes in the three co-ordinated attacks, flattening buildings and destroying dictator Bashar al-Assad’s nerve agent stockpiles.
But Russia warned of “consequences” and conflict with the UK came a step closer as an angry President Putin declared the attacks will have “a devastating impact on the whole system of international relations”.
105 missiles all hit with precision... we have set Assad back for years Lt Gen ken mckenzie director of joint staff
CATASTROPHE
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn denounced the raids and said: “This legally questionable action risks escalating further.”
Whitehall sources said Mrs May fears a public backlash over the raids. But she insisted the world would not “stand by and tolerate use of chemical weapons”.
And legal justification released by No10 last night said: “Intervention was directed exclusively to averting a humanitarian catastrophe caused by the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons.
“The action was the minimum judged necessary.”
America warned it was “locked and loaded” to strike again if necessary – with Britain standing firmly alongside. US President Donald Trump tweeted that the attacks were “perfectly executed”.
He added: “Mission Accomplished. Thank-you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine military.”
Our jets took off from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus and destroyed a former missile base west of Homs.
Intelligence suggests it stored sarin and chlorine allegedly used in the Aerial images show how RAF and French fighter jets destroyed two chemical weapons sites near Homs attack which killed at least 70 civilians – mainly women and children – in Douma eight days ago.
The strikes hit Syria at 4am, with explosions jolting residents from their beds in the capital Damascus as walls and windows shook. A CBS reporter told of hearing “a rumbling like thunder” as the missiles hit.
The US showed before and after photographs of the three sites – one in Barzeh, in northern Damascus, said to have developed chlorine and sarin agents, and the two bases at Him
Shinsar, 15 miles west of Homs. Images showed three large buildings at the Barzeh research centre had been flattened. The facility is a branch of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Centre, long suspected of developing chemical weapons.
POWERFUL
It was hit by 76 missiles, 57 of which were sea-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles. The rest were air-launched missiles fired from American planes and ships in the Mediterranean, the
Gulf and the Red Sea. French jets took part in the attack on Homs, firing nine Scalp cruise missiles.
Lt Gen Kenneth McKenzie, the director of the Joint Staff, said all 105 missiles hit their intended target in “a powerful show of allied unity that will set the Syrian chemical weapons programme back for years”.
America said no civilians were injured – but Syria said three were.
Lt Gen McKenzie dismissed Russian and Syrian claims that 71 missiles were intercepted. He said none was blocked and revealed that Syria fired some 40 missiles the intended targets had been hit.
Russia moved quickly to condemn the attacks with President Putin calling them an “act of aggression against a sovereign state” and claiming they were against the UN charter.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted that the attacks represented “a war crime,” and the Syrian Foreign Ministry described it as “barbarous aggression”.
Assad said the airstrikes would