TRUMP STRIKES SYRIA ‘ TO END THE SLAUGHTER’
U. S. launches cruise missiles at military base after chemical attack in war- torn nation
PALM BEACH, Fla. — The United States blasted a Syrian air base with a barrage of cruise missiles Thursday night in fiery retaliation for this week’s gruesome chemical weapons attack against civilians. President Donald Trump cast the U. S. assault as vital to deter future use of poison gas and called on other nations to join in seeking “to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria.”
It was the first direct American assault on the Syrian government and Trump’s most dramatic military order since becoming president just over two months ago. The strikes also risk thrusting the U. S. deeper into an intractable conflict that his predecessor spent years trying to avoid.
Announcing the assault from his Florida resort, Trump said there was no doubt Syrian President Bashar Assad was responsible for the chemical attack, which he said employed banned gases and killed dozens.
The U. S. strikes — some 59 missiles launched from the USS Ross and USS Porter — hit the government- controlled Shayrat air base in central Syria, where U. S. officials say the Syrian military planes that dropped the chemicals had taken off. The U. S. missiles hit at 7: 45 p. m. Chicago time, 3: 45 Friday morning in Syria. The missiles targeted the base’s airstrips, hangars, control tower and ammunition areas, officials said.
The attack killed some Syrians and wounded others, Talal Barazi, the governor of Syria’s Homs province, told The Associated Press. He didn’t give precise numbers.
Trump approved the strikes without approval from Congress or the backing of the United Nations. U. S. officials said he had the right to use force to defend national interests and to protect civilians from atrocities.
Syrian state TV reported a U. S. missile attack on a number of military targets and called the attack an “aggression.”
U. S. officials placed some of the blame on Russia, one of Syria’s most important benefactors. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in Florida with Trump, said Moscow had failed in living up to a 2013 agreement that was intended to strip Syria of its chemical weapons stockpiles.
“Either Russia has been complicit or Russia has been simply incompetent in its ability to deliver on its end of the agreement,” Tillerson said.
The president did not announce the attacks in advance, though he and other officials ratcheted up warnings to the Syrian government throughout the day Thursday.
U. S. officials portrayed the strikes as an appropriate, measured response and said they did not signal a broader shift in the administration’s approach to the conflict.
Before the strikes, U. S. military officials said they informed their Russian counterparts of the impending attack. The goal was to avoid any accident involving Russian forces.