U.S. launches missile strikes against Syria

Barrage is retaliation for chemical attack against civilians

PALM BEACH, Fla. — The United States blasted a Syrian air base with a barrage of cruise missiles early Friday morning 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 Mr. Trump’s most dramatic military order since becoming president just over two months ago. Announcing the assault from his Florida resort, Mr. 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.

“Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children,” Mr. Trump declared, while calling on “all civilized nations” to join the U.S. in seeking an end to the carnage in Syria. “And also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types.”

The president added that “peace and harmony will prevail” so long as the U.S. continues to stand for justice. Mr. Trump also said that the U.S. missile attack was in the nation’s “vital national security interest,” and that the U.S. must “prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.”

The U.S. strikes hit the government-controlled Shayrat air base in central Syria, where U.S. officials say the Syrian military planes that dropped the chemicals — possibly sarin — had taken off. The missiles targeted the base’s airstrips, hangars, control tower and ammunition areas, officials said.

Mr. Trump ordered the strikes without approval from Congress — more than two dozen lawmakers were briefed, however — or the backing of the United Nations.

Syrian state TV reported a U.S. missile attack on a number of military targets and called the attack an “aggression” that led to “losses.”

A Syrian opposition group, the Syrian Coalition, welcomed the U.S. attack, saying it puts an end to an age of “impunity” and should be just the beginning.

The surprise U.S. assault was viewed as marking a striking reversal for Mr. Trump, who warned as a candidate against the U.S. getting pulled into the Syrian civil war, now in its seventh year. But the president earlier in the week appeared moved by the photos of children killed in the chemical attack, calling it a “disgrace to humanity” that crossed “a lot of lines.”

Secretary of State Rex Tillers on, in Florida with Mr. Trump, also said Moscow had failed in living up to a 2013 agreement that was