President Donald Trump issued a missile strike on Syria in response to the chemical attack on a Syrian hospital. Trump described the attack as necessary to “prevent and deter the use of deadly chemical weapons.”
“Years of previous attempts at changing Assad’s behavior have all failed, and failed very dramatically,” Trump said. “As a result, the refugee crisis continues to deepen, and the region continues to destabilize, threatening the United States and its allies.”
The strike, which was issued late Thursday night, targeted runway aircraft and fuel points. Near 60 cruise missiles were used.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that a Syrian colonel had been killed in the airstrike and the airstrike damaged over a dozen hangars, a fuel depot and an air defense base. Late Friday the SOHR reported the Syrian military conducted actions from the same air base that was targeted in the strikes.
The world reacted to the airstrikes on Friday morning. Russia, Syria and Iran criticized the strikes while the United Kingdom and Australia put their full support behind the United States.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President of France, Francois Hollande issued a joint statement in which they said Syrian President Assad “bears full responsibility for this development.”
According to Hollande and Merkel, the repeated use of chemical weapons and crimes against his own population “had to be sanctioned.”
A military source in Moscow said that Russian ship loaded with cruise missiles would begin to head towards the Mediterranean on Friday.
“The Russian ship armed with cruise missiles Kalibr will visit the logistics base in Tartus, Syria,” the source told TASS, a Russian news agency.
Skepticism over the validity of the missile strike mirrors that of the chemical weapons strike of 2013.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem claims the Syrian army bombed a warehouse belonging to al-Qaeda that contained chemical weapons or materials, not that Assad used chemical weapons.
Russia called the attack an “act of aggression” and suspended an agreement that prevents direct conflict between U.S. and Russian forces in the Syrian region.
Known as the “deconfliction line,” U.S. and Russian forces exchanged information to prevent incidents. The agreement was enacted in 2015 after a Russian air campaign in Syria.
Russian forces were given no more than a 90 minute notice of the attack.
Hawaiian representative Tulsi Gabbard criticized Trump in a statement saying the strike was “short-sighted” and that Trump “acted recklessly.”
“It angers and saddens me that President Trump has taken the advice of war hawks and escalated our illegal regime change war to overthrow the Syrian government,” Gabbard said.
Syrian President Bashar al- Assad called the attack an “unjust and arrogant aggression.”
Congressional lawmakers chastised Trump for not getting their approval for the missile strike. International and domestic lawmakers questioned if Trump’s actions were conducted legally.
“While we all condemn the atrocities in Syria, the United States was not attacked,” said Republican Senator Rand Paul said on Twitter.
“The president needs congressional authorization for military action as required by the Constitution, and I call on him to come to Congress for a proper debate. Our prior interventions in this region have done nothing to make us safer, and Syria will be no different,” Senator Paul said.
Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham released a joint statement praising Trump for the missile strike saying that he “confronted a pivotal moment in Syria and took action.”
Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi endorsed Trump’s attack on the Syrian airbase.
“Making sure Assad knows that when he commits such despicable atrocities he will pay a price is the right thing to do,” Schumer said in a statement released late Thursday. “I salute the professionalism and skill of our Armed Forces who took action today.”
Barton Kleen
Executive Editor