U.S. Launches Missile Strike on Syria After Gas Attack

The U.S. launched a cruise missile attack against Syria after accusing Bashar al-Assad’s regime of using poison gas to kill scores of civilians, an act that drew international condemnation and that President Donald Trump called “an affront to humanity.”

“Tonight I ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched,” Trump told reporters Thursday night at his Florida club, where he hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier in the evening. It is in the “vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons. There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the chemical weapons conventions.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the U.S. attack as an “act of aggression against a sovereign state” that will cause “considerable damage” to relations with Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.


“The U.K. government fully supports the U.S. action, which we believe was an appropriate response to the barbaric chemical weapons attack launched by the Syrian regime, and is intended to deter further attacks,” Prime Minister Theresa May’s office said Friday in an emailed statement.
The limited strike early on Friday morning in Syria was aimed at hangars, planes, fuel tanks, ammunition storage and air-defense systems at the Shayrat Airfield, according to the Pentagon. The airfield was hit with 59 Raytheon Co. Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from the USS Porter and USS Ross, two Navy destroyers in the Mediterranean Sea.

At least four were killed and tens of Syrian government troops were wounded in the attack, according to the U.K.-based opposition monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The task of military planners was made more complicated by the presence of Russian forces in Syria to support Assad’s regime in its battle against rebel groups that include Islamic State and al-Qaeda fighters but also some backed by the U.S. The Pentagon notified the Russians before the strike was launched, and U.S. military planners “took precautions to minimize risk to Russian or Syrian personnel located at the airfield,” according to Captain Jeff Davis, a Defense Department spokesman.

QuickTake Chemical Weapons

Russian forces so far have not been placed at risk by the U.S. actions, said Frants Klintsevich, the deputy head of the defense and security committee in the upper house of parliament. “But if we see a threat to our bases or our servicemen, we of course will put the airspace in order,” he said by phone. Russia has advanced air-defense systems in Syria to protect its bases, which include a naval facility and an airbase.