U.S. Fires 59 Cruise Missiles at Syrian Government Airbase

The United States fired 59 cruise missiles into Syria early on Friday, targeting a government airbase that Washington said had been used to launch a deadly chemical weapons attack on rebel-held Idlib earlier this week, Reuters reported.

The strike on the Shayrat airfield in Homs province has seriously damaged relations between the U.S. and Russia, according to president Vladimir Putin’s spokesman. The attack was an “aggression against a sovereign nation” on a “made-up pretext,” he said.

Moscow is a key ally of the Syrian government and first intervened militarily on its behalf in September 2015.

The attack is expected to be a “one off,” a U.S. defense official told Reuters, and the general policy on Syria has not changed, said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

“This clearly indicates the president [Donald Trump] is willing to take decisive action when called for,” he said. “I would not in any way attempt to extrapolate that to a change in our policy or our posture relative to our military activities in Syria today. There has been no change in that status.”

The Syrian army said at least six people were killed in the raid, which almost totally destroyed the airbase, according to the United Kingdom-based monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Israel welcomed the airstrike, with a statement from prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office saying: “President Trump sent a strong and clear message today that the use and spread of chemical weapons will not be tolerated.”

Trump did not seek congressional approval for the attack.

Two Most Powerful Islamist Rebel Groups Clash

Fighting broke out in northern Syria on Thursday between two of the most powerful Islamist opposition groups, according to the SOHR.

Ahrar al-Sham and the Tahrir al-Sham alliance clashed near the Atameh border crossing with Turkey, in the countryside around rebel-held Idlib, exchanging fire and taking prisoners. Tahrir al-Sham is led by Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the former al-Qaida affiliate in Syria.

The fighting was reportedly over the disputed control of a checkpoint, and one member of Tahrir al-Sham was killed.

Warplanes Target Khan Shaykhoun Again After U.S. Airstrikes

Air raids struck the village of Khan Shaykhoun in the Idlib countryside on Friday following the U.S. airstrikes on the Sharayat airbase, the SOHR reported.

There is no information on casualties yet, nor is it clear whether the planes were Russian or Syrian. Airstrikes by the Syrian government on rebel-held Khan Shaykhoun on Tuesday killed more than 80 people in a suspected chemical weapons attack, prompting the U.S. airstrikes on the Shayrat base.

Recommended Reads

• The Guardian: ‘The Dead Were Wherever You Looked’: Inside Syrian Town After Gas Attack
• Time: What to Know About the U.S. Missile Attack on Syria
• Reuters: Stocks Spooked, Safe Assets Jump After U.S. Missile Strike on Syria
• The Guardian: Trump’s Senseless Syria Strikes Accomplish Nothing
• Carnegie: Local Wars and the Chance for Decentralized Peace in Syria

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Updated on April 7th, 2017

U.S. Attack on Syria Puts Assad in the Cross Hairs

The United States military blasted a Syrian airfield with 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles Thursday night in a serious escalation of American involvement in the Syrian conflict.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the action was a response to an alleged chemical weapons attack by President Bashar al-Assad’s government two days ago that killed more than 80 civilians in Idlib.

The U.S. attack marks the first time the superpower has directly attacked Assad’s government since the start of the civil war in 2011.

Observers said the attack significantly increases the possibility of a regional conflict. The attack “dramatically expands U.S. military involvement in Syria and exposes the United States to heightened risk of direct confrontation with Russia and Iran, both backing Assad in his attempt to crush his opposition,” said The Washington Post.

According to  press reports quoting the U.S. military, the cruise missiles – launched from two Navy destroyers stationed in the eastern Mediterranean – severely damaged the government airbase in Homs province, which was purportedly used by Syrian planes that carried out the chemical weapons attack.

The U.S. military was quoted as saying the strike had “severely damage or destroyed Syrian aircraft and support infrastructure.”

Before the attacks, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson signaled that the Trump administration would push for Assad’s removal in the wake of the Sarin gas attacks.

“Assad’s role in the future is uncertain clearly and with the acts that he has taken, it will seem that there would be no role for him to govern the Syrian people,” Tillerson said Thursday at a press conference in Palm Beach, Florida, according to CBS News.

Trump declared at his Mar-a-Largo estate in Florida that the attack was in the “vital national security interest” and urged “all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria. And also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types.”

“We ask for God’s wisdom as we face the challenge of our very troubled world,” he added. “We pray for the lives of the wounded and for the souls of those who have passed and we hope that as long as America stands for justice then peace and harmony will in the end prevail.”

Notably, U.S. officials were quoted as saying that Russia, which has large forces in Syria and is aligned with the Assad government, was warned of the attack ahead of time and the U.S. took pains not to strike “a Russian military area” although it was also hit.

Recommended Reads

• The New York Times: Transcript and Video: Trump Speaks About Airstrikes in Syria
• The Washington Post: The main question after strikes on Syria: How does Russia respond?
• The Washington Post: Why the Navy’s Tomahawk missiles were the weapon of choice in strikes in Syria
• Huffington Post: U.S. Policy In Syria Is Being Determined By The News Cycle
• Maclean’s: Donald Trump goes to war
• Time Magazine: U.S. Launches a Missile Attack at Syria in a Test of President Trump’s ‘America First’ Policy