Air strikes unlikely to stop war

WASHINGTON/BEIRUT: Western powers said yesterday their missile attacks struck at the heart of Syria’s chemical weapons programme, but the restrained assault appeared unlikely to halt Syrian President Bashar alAssad’s progress in the 7yearold civil war.

The United States, France and Britain launched 105 missiles in the early hours of Saturday in retaliation for a suspected poison gas attack in Syria a week ago, targeting what the Pentagon said were three chemical weapons facilities, including a research and development centre in Damascus’ Barzeh district and two installations near Homs.

The bombing was the biggest intervention by Western countries against Assad and his superpower ally Russia, but the three countries said the strikes were limited to Syria’s chemical weapons capabilities and not aimed at toppling Assad or intervening in the civil war.

The air attack, denounced by Damascus and its allies as an illegal act of aggression, was unlikely to alter the course of a multisided war that has killed at least half a million people.

US President Donald Trump called the operation a success.

He proclaimed on Twitter: ‘‘Mission accomplished’’, echoing former President George W. Bush, whose use of the same phrase in 2003 to describe the US invasion of Iraq was widely ridiculed as violence there dragged on for years.

‘‘We believe that by hitting Barzeh in particular we’ve attacked the heart of the Syrian chemicals weapon programme,’’ US Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie said at the Pentagon.

However, McKenzie acknowledged elements of the programme remained and he could not guarantee Syria would be unable to conduct a chemical attack in the future.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that Trump told her that if Syria uses poisonous gas again, ‘‘the United States is locked and loaded’’.

The Western countries said the strikes were aimed at preventing more Syrian chemical weapons attacks after a suspected poison gas attack in Douma on April 7 killed up to 75 people. They blame Assad’s Government for the attack.

In Washington, a senior administration official said ‘‘while the available information is much greater on the chlorine use, we do have significant information that also points to sarin use’’ in the attack.

Speaking at a summit in Peru, US Vice President Mike Pence seemed less sure of the use of sarin, saying Washington might well determine that it was used along with chlorine.

Allegations of Assad’s chlorine use have been frequent during the war although, unlike nerve agents, chlorine did not produce mass casualties as seen on April 7.

Ten hours after the missiles hit, smoke was still rising from the remains of five destroyed buildings of the Syrian Scientific Research Centre in Barzeh, where a Syrian employee said medical components were developed.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Syria released video of the wreckage of a bombedout research lab, but also of Assad arriving at work as usual, with the caption ‘‘Morning of resilience’’.

Late on Saturday Syria time, a large explosion was heard in a Syrian governmentcontrolled area in a rural region south of Aleppo, according to the Britainbased war monitor The Syrian Observatory for Human

Rights. The Observatory said the cause of the explosion was unknown, as well as its target.

Syria and its allies made clear they considered the attack a oneoff, unlikely to do meaningful harm to Assad.

A senior official in a regional alliance that backs Damascus said the targeted sites had been evacuated days ago thanks to a warning from Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the strikes were ‘‘unacceptable and lawless’’.

Syrian state media called them a ‘‘flagrant violation of international law’’, while Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called it a crime and the Western leaders criminals.

Russia had promised to respond to any attack on its ally, but the Pentagon said no Russian air defence systems were used. Syria fired 40 unguided surfacetoair missiles, but only after the Western strikes had ended, the Pentagon said.

‘‘We are confident that all of our missiles reached their targets,’’ McKenzie said.

British Prime Minister Theresa May described the strike as ‘‘limited and targeted’’, with no intention of toppling Assad or intervening more widely in the war.

❛ We believe that by hitting Barzeh in particular we’ve attacked the heart of the

Syrian chemicals weapon programme

Washington described the strike targets as a centre near Damascus for the research, development, production and testing of chemical and biological weapons; a chemical weapons storage site near the city of Homs; and another site near Homs that stored chemical weapons equipment and housed a command post.

The Pentagon said there had been chemical weapons agents at one of the targets, and the strikes had significantly crippled Syria’s ability to produce such weapons.

UN Secretarygeneral Antonio Guterres urged all Security Council members to exercise restraint and avoid escalation in Syria, but said allegations of chemical weapons use demanded an investigation.

Inspectors from the global chemical weapons watchdog Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons arrived in Damascus yesterday to investigate last week’s alleged chemical attack in Douma, a statement on its social media account said.

Moscow condemned the Western states for refusing to wait for their findings.

Russia has denied any gas attack took place in Douma and even accused Britain of staging it to whip up antiRussian hysteria.

The Western countries took precautions to avoid unexpected conflict with Russia. French Defence Minister Florence Parly said Russia was warned beforehand to avert conflict.

The UN Security Council has rejected a Russian resolution calling for condemnation of the ‘‘aggression’’ by the US and its allies against Syria.

Russia’s demand for condemnation and an immediate halt to ‘‘aggression’’ and ‘‘any further use of force’’ by the US, Britain and France got support from only two other countries on the 15member council, China and Bolivia.

The vote yesterday came at the end of an emergency meeting of the council called by Moscow, which saw Russia and its supporters clashing with the US and its allies over the suspected poison gas attack in Douma.

Russian news agencies reported late last night that Russian MPs met with Assad yesterday, who told them the missile strikes were an act of aggression and had praised the Sovietera air defence systems used by Syria to help to repel the Western attacks.

In Douma, the last buses were due yesterday to take away rebels and their families who agreed to surrender the town, state TV reported. That effectively ends all resistance in Eastern Ghouta, marking one of the biggest victories for Assad’s Government of the war. — Reuters