U.S. RETALIATES IN SYRIA
After a suspected chemical attack that killed dozens of civilians, Trump orders air base hit with barrage of missiles
On Tuesday, a northwestern town in Syria was hit with a suspected chemical attack that killed scores of civilians. The attack was the deadliest chemical assault on a civilian population in Syria since government forces attacked rebel-held suburbs of Damascus with sarin nerve agent in 2013. At least 80 were killed in the attack using a banned nerve agent. Medical organizations working inside Syria said they had treated more than 500 people who inhaled the still-unidentified chemical. The World Health Organization said victims showed symptoms consistent with a reaction to a nerve agent, stockpiles of which President Bashar al-Assad’s government was supposed to have destroyed more than three years ago in an attempt to stave off U.S. military intervention under the Obama administration. Tuesday’s government, assaultbut Russiawas widelytried Wednesdayattributed to to the shift Syrianthe blame to armed groups opposing Assad. After President Donald Trump condemned the heinous attack, the U.S. military launched 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian military airfield in the first direct American assault on the government of Assad since that country’s civil war began nearly six years ago. The operation, which the Trump administration authorized in retaliation, dramatically expands U.S. military involvement in Syria and exposes the United States to heightenedIran, who both risk backof directthe Syrian confrontation government.with Russia and Syria and Russia swiftly denounced the attack from U.S. Navy destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean. They struck the airbase called Shayrat in Homs province, which is the site from which the planes that conducted the chemical attack are believed to have originated. Less than 24 hours ago, new airstrikes targeted the same city that was hit by the chemical attack. It wasn’t immediately clear who conducted the strikes, though only Russian and Syrian regime aircraft have been bombing that area. Russia, the Syrian regime’s main ally, sent a frigate armed with cruise missiles to a port in western Syria. The U.S. strikes were sure to further strain the U.S.Russia relationship amid talk since Trump’s election that ties would be strengthened. Russia warned of serious consequences.