President Trump hails strikes on Syria’s chemical weapons program.
WASHINGTON — Defense Department officials said Saturday that U.S.-led strikes against Syria had taken out the “heart” of President Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons program, but acknowledged that the Syrian government most likely retained some ability to again attack its own people with chemical agents.
Warplanes and ships from the United States, Britain and France launched more than 100 missiles at three chemical weapons storage and research sites near Damascus and Homs, the officials said, in an operation that President Trump and Pentagon leaders hailed as a success.
“A perfectly executed strike last night,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military. Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!”
The strikes before dawn Saturday in Syria — which came in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack on civilians a week ago — were the second time in just over a year that Trump had sent missiles crashing into Syrian military targets, adding U.S. firepower to a civil war that is one of the most complex and multisided conflicts in a generation.
Beyond the immediate question of whether the new strikes actually accomplished the stated goal of diminishing Syria’s capacity to make and use chemical agents, the attack posed the risk of drawing the United States more deeply into a conflict in which Russia and Iran have more invested than ever in keeping Assad in power.
The United States is “locked and loaded” to strike again if Assad is believed to renew his use of chemical weapons, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the Security Council at an emergency meeting Saturday called by Russia.
“We are confident that we have crippled Syria’s chemical weapons program. We are prepared to sustain this pressure, if the Syrian regime is foolish enough to test our will,” Haley said.
She said that Russia had failed to abide by a 2013 promise to ensure that Syria got rid of its chemical weapons stockpiles.
“While Russia was busy protecting the regime, Assad took notice,” she said. “The regime knew that it could act with impunity, and it did.”
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday that the U.S. government was confident that Syrian forces had used chlorine in the deadly attack on civilians last Saturday in Douma, but did not provide evidence.
The White House has cited photographs and videos from Douma to make the case, and has dismissed alternative explanations from the Syrian and Russian governments. It said that the nerve agent sarin may have been used in addition to chlorine.
A group from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which had announced a fact-finding mission to determine if chemical weapons were used in the Douma attack, arrived in Damascus on Saturday, the group said in a statement.
A statement by the Syrian military said 110 missiles had been fired in the U.S.-led strike. Three people were injured in Homs, it said. Videos from Damascus showed Syrian air defense missiles launching into a dark night sky, and the Russian military said that at one Syrian air base, all 12 cruise missiles that targeted the site had been shot down.
Defense Department officials dismissed those claims, saying the entire U.S.-led operation was over and the targets were destroyed before Syria launched any of the 40 missiles it fired into the air.
But the strikes were limited, with an eye toward making sure they did not draw retaliation from Russia and Iran and set off a wider conflict. For that reason, Assad may still be able to use chemical agents in the future.
“I would say there’s still a residual element of the Syrian program that’s out there,” McKenzie said. “I’m not going to say that they’re going to be unable to continue to conduct a chemical attack in the future. I suspect, however, they’ll think long and hard about it.”
The limited nature of the strikes left some members of Congress and other observers underwhelmed.
“I fear that when the dust settles, this strike will be seen as a weak military response and Assad will have paid a small price for using chemical weapons yet again,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Early Saturday, Assad’s office posted a video that appeared to show him strolling into work in a suit and tie and carrying a briefcase as if nothing had happened.
There were no signs of immediate retaliation, suggesting that Assad and his allies planned to weather the storm, perhaps in the belief that the United States was mostly concerned with avoiding deeper involvement.