Pentagon weighs military response after Syria ‘chemical attack’

Trump made the remark to reporters Monday evening during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House with his top military leaders, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford. Trump said he would make “major decisions” within 24 to 48 hours about how the United States would react.

At the time of the weekend attack in Douma, Syrian government forces and their allies were in the midst of clearing the last pocket of rebel resistance in the eastern Ghouta region, where the town is located.

President Donald Trump condemned the attacks, tweeting that it was “mindless chemical attack” and that the people responsible will pay a “big price”.

An American official said the U.S. was discussing with allies whether they would participate in a retaliatory strike.

And Syrian envoy Bashar Jaafari said Syria had no chemical weapons stockpiles.

France also said it did not carry out any air strike in Syria.

Defense secretary Jim Mattis said he wouldn’t “rule out anything right now” when asked by reporters on Monday morning whether the U.S. was considering military actions against Syria including an airstrike.

Syrian state TV initially said the U.S. was suspected of carrying out the attack on T-4. The U.K.’s ambassador accused him of crying “crocodile tears” over the dead in Douma and said Russian Federation was trying to distract from the chemical assault by portraying itself as a victim.

At a regular press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said his country was “opposed to the wanton use of force or threat of force”.

The video showed men, women, and children in a Syrian hospital, victims of the gas attack, gasping for air.

The decision came after an apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians in Syria.

It said six died while being treated, and rescuers found 42 more people dead in their homes with similar conditions.

Since February 18, Assad has captured most of Ghouta with a ferocious military assault and two negotiated rebel withdrawals.

Mr. Trump is expected to announce his response to the chemical attack soon. These are frightful photos from the alleged attack. “So we’re looking at that very, very strongly and very seriously”.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he won’t rule anything out militarily.But thanks to the Trump administration’s whipsawing messaging over whether America will even stay in Syria, and the unsafe complexities of the multi-national conflict, the Pentagon’s options appeared limited.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters: “While the United Nations is not in a position to verify these reports, the Secretary-General notes that any use of chemical weapons, if confirmed, is abhorrent, and requires a thorough investigation”.

SANA said the missile attack resulted in a number of casualties but provided no specific figures. So Assad is at it again.

Britain’s Permanent Representative Karen Pierce said the situation today was worse than that during the Cold War because then there was no such flagrant disregard of the universal prohibition against chemical weapons.

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis, and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Tuesday.