U.S. MISSILES STRIKE SYRIA
Trump orders launch of dozens of Tomahawk missiles targeting government airfield suspected in fatal chemical weapon attack
PALM BEACH, Fla. — The U.S. military launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield on Thursday, President Donald Trump’s first major military action since taking office.
The strike, which hit a Syrian airfield in Homs province at 4:40 a.m. local time Friday (8:40 p.m. EDT Thursday), was launched from the destroyers USS Porter and USS Ross in the eastern Mediterranean, just 24 hours after Trump criticized his predecessor, Barack Obama, for failing to confront President Bashar Assad in 2013 after another use of chemical weapons attributed to the Syrian government.
Pentagon officials said the U.S. had notified Russia in advance of the attack and had taken pains to avoid Russian casualties. But Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made it clear that the U.S. blamed Russia for failing to rein in Assad as required by a U.S.-Russia agreement that was to have led to Syria’s destruction of its chemical weapons arsenal.
“Russia has failed in its responsibility,” Tillerson told reporters in Florida. “Either Russia has been complicit or Russia has been simply incompetent in its ability to deliver on its end of that agreement.”
Speaking emotionally from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Trump condemned Tuesday’s deadly chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun by the Syrian government that killed at least 86 people.
“It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror,” Trump said. “Tonight I ordered an airstrike on the air field in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched.”
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Tillerson were with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday when the strikes were launched.
The strike will more than likely change the conversation in Washington, overshadowing many of the issues that have consumed the city and the Trump administration since Trump’s Jan. 20 swearing in. In a presidency where Trump is often accused of trying to change the subject with a new tweet or announcement to distract from the latest controversy, the Syrian airstrikes offer a new opportunity for credit or criticism.
Trump received support from Republicans, but Democrats were hesitant to back the president.
“Assad was warned, repeatedly, by the U.S. and the U.N. that the intentional targeting of innocent men, women and children is intolerable,” said Ed Royce, the California Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Now Assad has been caught red-handed carrying out another abhorrent chemical attack, and the administration has taken a measured response.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Assad should know that when he commits despicable atrocities he will pay a price. But he said Trump needed to include Congress in the conversation.
“It is incumbent on the Trump administration to come up with a strategy and consult with Congress before implementing it,” Schumer said.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said the strike will not hasten an end to the Assad regime, but it may deter its further use of chemical weapons.
“Nevertheless, this missile strike and the military action of our forces already in Syria have yet to be authorized by Congress,” said Schiff, the senior Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. “I will be re-introducing an authorization for use of military force against ISIS and al-Qaida when Congress returns to session. Congress cannot abdicate its responsibility any longer and should vote on any use of force not made in self defense.”
Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said it would be “wrong to suggest that this strike was carried out in haste.”
While the Trump administration may be new, the Pentagon has been collecting intelligence and building a bank of targets in Syria, Schanzer said. “There are undoubtedly dozens of similar targets at their disposal. This strike was apparently a pinpoint strike against the very airfield from which the chemical weapons attack was launched. But it was undoubtedly well known to war planners before tonight.”
Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said the U.S. military took “extraordinary measures to avoid civilian casualties.”
“Every precaution was taken to execute this strike with minimal risk to personnel at the airfield,” Davis said. “The strike was a proportional response to Assad’s heinous act ... The strike was intended to deter the regime from using chemical weapons again.”
The airfield was targeted because it was used to store chemical weapons, and because U.S. intelligence assessed that aircraft from that field conducted Tuesday’s chemical weapons attack, Davis said. While an assessment was still being made of the destruction, the Pentagon said that Syrian aircraft, infrastructure and equipment had been “severely damaged or destroyed.”
Russian forces were warned in advance of the strike, the Pentagon said, insisting that “U.S. military planners took precautions to minimize risk to Russian or Syrian personnel located at the airfield.”
Russia’s deputy to the United Nations, Vladimir Safronkov, warned the U.S. earlier on Thursday that there would be “negative consequences” if it carried out military strikes on Syria in response to the attack.