TRUMP STRIKES
Prez fires missiles at Syrian butcher
One day after President Trump said Syrian despot Bashar alAssad had crossed “many, many l i nes, beyond a red l i ne” with a chemical attack on his own people, the United States early t his morning f i red nearly 60 missiles at t he air base f rom which the toxic- gas attack was launched.
The United States fired nearly 60 cruise missiles at a Syrian air base early Friday in response to the brutal regime’s poison-gas attack on its own civilians this week.
President Trump authorized the strikes on the Shayrat airfield, which he said had been used by President Bashar al-Assad’s government to launch Tuesday’s sarin-gas bombing that killed 70 in a town in Idlib province.
“No child of God should ever suffer such horror,” Trump said of the gas attack during a televised speech from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida Thursday night.
“Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many.”
The Tomahawk missiles were fired at 3:40 a.m. local time (8:40 p.m. EDT Thursday) from US warships in the Mediterranean.
Trump said that the attack was in America’s “vital national security interest” and that the United States must “prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.
“There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and ignored the urging of the UN Security Council,” he said.
The president had been highly critical of the prospect of taking military action in the region, but reportedly changed his mind when confronted with graphic photos of Syrian children killed and wounded in the gas attack.
Although the United States had previously taken part in air and missile attacks against ISIS in Syria, Friday’s assault was the first direct US hit on Syrian-government installations.
Syrian state TV called the attack an “aggression” and said the missiles led “to losses,” without giving details.
Talal Barazi, the governor of Homs province, where the Shay- rat air base is located, said the strike would “support the terrorists on the ground.” He added that while there was structural damage, there appeared not to be many casualties.
“I believe — God willing — that the human casualties are not big,” Barazi told Reuters. “But there is material damage. We hope there are not many victims and martyrs.”
US military officials said the has impeded Syria’s ability to carry out chemical attacks.
“We are assessing the results of the strike,” said Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis, according to The New York Times. “Initial indications are that this strike has severely damaged or destroyed Syrian aircraft and support infrastructure and equipment at Shayrat airfield.”
Officials said they took precaution not to directly target the air base’s storage tanks believed to be holding lethal chemicals.
Russian forces in the region were notified in advance of the strike, the Pentagon said.
The Russians have been actively involved in helping Assad’s forces in the 6-year-old civil war, in which the despot is trying to hold power against groups of rebels and ISIS terrorists. Hundreds of thousands of people have died, leading to a massive refugee crisis.
Russian President President Vladimir Putin is a strong supporter of Assad and has resisted efforts to remove him.
Shayrat hosted no Russian planes and no Russian facilities were targeted, the Times reported.
After the strike, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson blamed Russia for letting the Syrian atrocities occur, claiming it failed to carry out 2013 agreement to secure Syrian chemical weapons.
Tillerson added that Moscow was either complicit or incompetent in its ability to carry out the agreement.
A US defense official described the strike as a “one-off ” and Tillerson said it does not signal a change in policy toward Syria.
“I would not in any way attempt to extrapolate that [decision to bomb] to a change in our policy,” Tillerson said.
Congressional reaction to the Thursday’s strike was mixed, with some applauding Trump’s decisive action and others worrying about another conflagration in the Middle East.
“Making sure Assad knows that when he commits such despicable atrocities he will pay a price is the right thing to do,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer said.
Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina hailed the attack, while Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky blasted Trump.
“While we all condemn the atrocities in Syria, the United States was not attacked,” Paul tweeted. “The president needs congressional authorization for military action as required by the Constitution.”
The attack came after Tillerson blamed Assad for the gas attack.
“There is no doubt in our minds, and the information we have supports that Syria, the Syria regime under the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad are responsible for this attack,” Tillerson said.
A Putin spokesman said Thursday that the Kremlin’s support for Assad was not open-ended.
“Unconditional support is not possible in this current world,” said Dmitry Peskov. But, he added, “It is not correct to say that Moscow can convince Mr. Assad to do whatever is wanted in Moscow.”
Before the missile strike, Trump blasted Syria’s chem attack as “a disgrace to humanity.”
“What Assad did is terrible,” he said aboard Air Force One en route to meet China’s President Xi Jinping in Florida. “What happened in Syria is truly one of the egregious crimes, and it shouldn’t have happened. And it shouldn’t be allowed to happen.”