Missile Strikes On Syria Were ‘Mission Accomplished’

“A year ago I gave Israel’s total support for President Donald Trump’s decision to mobilize against the use of chemical weapons”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, referring to American strikes against the Syrian regime in April 2017 after a sarin gas attack on a rebel-held town.

“There’s still a residual element of the Syrian program that’s out there”, he said.

The Prime Minister was asked if the strikes had been a warning to Russian Federation and responded: The action that took place last night was an action which was focused on degrading and deterring the operational capability and the willingness of the Syrian regime to continue to use chemical weapons. Besides that being an unfortunate echo of former President George W. Bush’s premature victory declaration during the Iraq war, it’s unclear how much the US has accomplished.

“A perfectly executed strike last night”, tweeted President Trump.

Prime Minister May defended the strikes as “right and legal”, highlighting that the objective had been “to alleviate further humanitarian suffering”. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres asked for restraint in comments Saturday before the Security Council.

In the Syrian capital, Damascus, hundreds gathered to show their defiance in the face of western attacks, honking their auto horns, flashing victory signs and waving Syrian flags after the airstrikes.

The Russian military claimed Syrian air defense systems had intercepted 71 Western missiles, though the Pentagon flatly dismissed the claim and said all missiles hit their targets. They came from the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf and the Mediterranean, homing in from three directions to overwhelm whatever missile defenses Assad’s regime might employ.

A regime military statement said 110 missiles were fired Saturday by the U.S., Britain and France and that it shot down a lot of them. Syria has denied the accusation.

Russian Federation and Syria have denied that chemical weapons were used at all and said their own investigators had been to the area and found no trace of them.

According to U.S. officials, the operation involved three USA destroyers, a French frigate and a United States submarine. Most of the Syrian countermeasures, including defensive ballistic missiles, were fired after USA and allied weapons hit their targets, Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie said Saturday.

· France said the strikes had destroyed a “large part” of Damascus’ chemical weapons stock. He said Washington is prepared to keep pressure on Assad until he ends a “criminal pattern of killing his own people” with the internationally banned weapons.

The US-led airstrikes against Syrian government forces were in a sense “the best strikes possible”, having led to limited damage and limited response, believes Valdai Club expert Joost Hiltermann. He criticized the USA and its allies for launching the strike without waiting for global inspectors to visit the area.

■ May 18, 2017: A USA airstrike hits pro-Syrian government forces that the coalition said posed a threat to American troops and allied rebels operating near the border with Jordan in southern Syria.

The US Air Force fired air-launched cruise missiles from B-1 bombers, and French and British planes also shot cruise missiles toward the targets.

Another senior opposition figure, Nasr Hariri, said the attacks were welcome but only reinforced the message that while it is not OK to use chemical weapons, the government can continue to “use explosive barrels and cluster bombs” with impunity.

Russias military had threatened to shoot down any USA missiles that put Russian lives at risk. And for the second time in his presidency, the USA commander-in-chief demanded retaliation. The Turkish government says the Kurds in Syria are allied with groups it calls terrorists in Turkey.

Dunford told reporters Friday that the US sought targets that would limit any involvement with Russian military forces in Syria and reduce the risk of civilian casualties. But the description from an ally put things differently.

Employees inside the institute said they were developing medications, not toxic chemical agents.

The research center was used for development, production, and testing of chemical and biological warfare technology, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford said at a news conference Friday.

Russian Federation is deeply tied to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and there’s more danger of retaliation and a wider war that the American public has absolutely no interest in waging.

“President Assad is winning, we all were witnesses to this fact”, said Idriss.

Russian Federation and Iran condemned the strikes on Syria and vowed to stand by their ally – warning – there will be consequences.

White, the Defense Department spokeswoman, said the strikes did not “represent a change in US policy or an attempt to depose the Syrian regime”.

Meanwhile, NATO said all 29 of its members in the alliance back the airstrikes on Syria as a outcome of the country conducting a suspected chemical attack against its civilians last weekend.

President Donald Trump said Saturday morning airstrikes in Syria overnight were “perfectly executed”, hours after he announced the USA, United Kingdom and France launched precision missile strikes in Syria in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria last weekend.