© AP Photo/ Hassen Ammar
US President Donald Trump has approved military strikes in Syria in retaliation for the alleged chemical attack by the Assad government in Douma, near Damascus, last week. The UK and France joined the operation.
"A short time ago, I ordered the United States Armed Forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad," Trump said in a televised address from the White House. He added that a combined military operation by the US, the UK and France is already underway in Syria.
The US-led intervention in Syria comes just hours before the UN's Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) experts were scheduled to visit the Damascus suburb of Douma on Saturday to determine whether chemical weapons had been used there last week.
Comment: What we're seeing in Syria with last year's US strike and now this latest one tonight, is a new kind of hybrid information-fantasy war where the US can declare itself as the dominant player in the region. Everything from the fake chemical attack, to the ratcheting up of war-fear, to this impotent attack on three warehouses cleared of all personnel is a
guise of power. The US wants to maintain its
image in the world as the top dog, but all it can do at this point is
wag the dog.
Updates: Pentagon says Syria strikes are 'one time shot' - strong message to Assad
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis described Saturday's strikes on multiple targets in Syria as "harder" than those in 2017, but said that no further launches were planned for the moment.
Specifying that more than twice as many weapons were fired as in April 2017, Mattis said that the aerial assault sought to "destroy the Syrian regime's chemical weapons research development and production capabilities."
The targets were described as a scientific research center in Damascus, and a pair of chemical storage facilities in close proximity to each other in Homs, a large city north of the Syrian capital.
"We were very precise and proportionate but at the same time it was a heavy strike," Mattis told reports.
Mattis added that the US, which has used manned aircraft to launch its missiles, had "gone to great lengths to avoid civilian and foreign casualties," while Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Joseph Dunford, who also took part in the briefing, said the Pentagon "specifically identified targets" to "mitigate the risk of Russian forces being involved."
Dunford said "normal deconfliction channel was used to deconflict airspace" with Moscow, but that the US did not "coordinate targets" with Moscow.
Russia has
responded:
The Russian Ambassador to the US has warned of "consequences" after the US and its allies launched a coordinated military action against Syria.
Russia feels threatened by the US decision to strike Syrian targets in retaliation for the alleged chemical attack in Douma on April 7, which Moscow believes was staged.
"A pre-designed scenario is being implemented. Again, we are being threatened. We warned that such actions will not be left without consequences," Anatoly Antonov said in a statement on Friday night. "All responsibility for them rests with Washington, London and Paris."
The US "specifically identified" targets to "mitigate the risk of Russian forces being involved," Dunford said. "We used the normal deconfliction channel to deconflict airspace. We did not coordinate targets."
While Trump said that the purpose of the US actions is to "establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread, and use of chemical weapons," Antonov reminded that "the US - the possessor of the biggest arsenal of chemical weapons - has no moral right to blame other countries."
The attack also comes just hours before experts from the UN Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) were scheduled to visit Douma on Saturday to determine whether chemical weapons had indeed been used there.
Putin's
response:
The US and its allies struck civil and military facilities in Syria, violating the UN Charter and international law, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, responding to the American-French-British intervention in Syria.
Washington launched "an aggression against a sovereign state which is at the forefront of the fight against terrorism," the statement from the president said. Putin stressed that the multi-national strikes were not sanctioned by the UN Security Council, and were carried out "in violation of the UN Charter and principles of international law."
What's more, the current escalation of the Syrian crisis has "a devastating impact on the whole system of international relations." Yet, history will set things straight as "it has already found Washington responsible for massacres in Yugoslavia. In fact, by using force, Washington is only prompting a new wave of asylum-seekers from Syria and the whole region, according to the Russian leader.
Meanwhile, Russia is calling an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the aggressive actions of the US and its allies, the statement concluded.
Update 2: Iranian supreme leader
Ali Khamenei:
"Attacking Syria is a crime. US president [Donald Trump], UK prime minister [Theresa May] and the president of France [Emmanuel Macron] are criminals," Khamenei said, as cited by Mehr News Agency.
The supreme leader added that the attack will not result in any "benefits," recalling the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The US-led attack is a "flagrant violation of international law" which "ignores the sovereignty of Syria," the statement released by Iran's Foreign Ministry said.
"The United States and its allies have no proof [that Syria is responsible for the Douma chemical attack] and, without even waiting for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to take a position, have carried out this military attack."
The US and its allies "are responsible for the regional consequences of this adventurist action," the statement added.
Update 3: The Syrian General Command reported
only minor damage as a result of the strikes. SANA
reports:
It added that the Syrian Air Defense systems confronted, with high competence, the missiles of the aggression and shot down most of them, meanwhile, some of the missiles hit one of the buildings of the Research Center in Barzzeh in Damascus, which includes an educational center and scientific laboratories, asserting that the damages were limited to material ones.
Other missiles were forced to deviate from their tracks while they were targeting a military position near Homs as their explosions caused the injury of three civilians.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, out of 103 missiles launched, 71 were shut down by Syrian forces. No casualties reported so far, thanks in part to Russia's
early warning:
A senior official in a regional alliance that backs Damascus said the Syrian government absorbed the attacks, adding that the targeted sites were evacuated days ago thanks to a warning from Russia.
"We had an early warning of the strike from the Russians ... and all military bases were evacuated a few days ago," the official said.
Meanwhile, President Assad is
off to work as usual:
Update 4: All in all, the "precision" attack on 3 "chemical weapons" facilities was a farce. But France, the UK and U.S. are hyping it as a successful show of force. France released
videos of the jets' takeoff, and the UK released
video of their jets' prep work. They all insist Assad's guilt is "beyond doubt" (Macron), "legitimate, proportional and targeted" (
French FM Le Drian), that the attack was "right and legal" (
May). Turkey welcomed the strikes, Donald Tusk said "the EU will stand with our allies on the side of justice" (LOL), Stoltenberg praised the attack, and both Merkel and Trudeau supported the decision. Trump himself
declared "mission accomplished" on Twitter, for a "perfectly executed" strike (LOL).
Meanwhile, the OPCW is just about to begin their investigation. The Western world seems to have gotten confused over the last decade or so. Typically investigations precede punishment in order to determine the guilt of the accused.
According to the Russian MOD all 12 cruise missiles fired at the Dumayr airbase near Damascus were
intercepted by Syrian air defense. The total attack consisted of cruise and air-to-surface missiles. The Americans
warned the Russians of the attack beforehand (no doubt after much behind-the-scenes negotiations), who in turn warned the Syrians, who evacuated the facilities in question. Only
three people were injured in the attacks (so far), apparently by shrapnel from missiles that were jammed and diverted from their intended targets.
But Washington continues to live in its own delusional unreality bubble. The Pentagon
called the strike "crippling and degrading" on Syria's already nonexistent chemical weapons program, said the Syrian air defense systems were "largely ineffective" and had no effect (no mention of the old Soviet systems, which DID work). Every target was hit. "We accomplished our military objectives" (low bar) and "dealt a severe blow" to Syria's non-existent chemical weapons facilities. Good job, U.S.! To put the "precise, overwhelming and effective" mission into perspective, the Saker
comments:
- That considering that 71 out of 103 missiles were intercepted.
- That there were no Syrian (or Iranian or Russian) fatalities.
- That not a single airfield was hit.
- That the buildings destroyed were empty.
- That only Syrian air defense were used.
- That Russian air defenses were completely bypassed.
...Finally, and this is weird, there is no evidence of the French doing anything at all (go figure?). Oh, speaking of the French, it appears that they warned the Russians about what would happen. So, technically speaking, the US generals are being truthful when they say that they did not warn the Russian but just "deconflict". The French did all the warning for them.
As for that pathetic scorecard, the Pentagon "spokesperson" said that they had noticed a 2000% increase of "Russian troll" activity over the past 24 hours.
No kidding!
I would think that completely destroying a non-existing Syria chemical warfare capability could even be called a "infinite success".
Let's wait for further details (a lot of pro-Syrian outlets did exaggerate the number of missiles shot down) but it appears that the AngloZionist went for the "least bad" option in terms of risk for our planet: a symbolic and completely useless "pretend strike". And for that I am personally grateful. Let's hope that, at least for a while, they need to establish their "indispensableness" will be satisfied.
According to
Ziad Fadel:
The combined forces used 110 cruise missiles 71 of which were either intercepted and destroyed by Syria's Pantsir air defense systems or were electronically toppled by a force which will remain unmentioned. Only 39 cruise missiles reached any target, many of them falling harmlessly in the Syrian Desert.
The only targets hit were a scientific research facility in Barza which contained classrooms and laboratories. All material had been removed so that the Americans could claim falsely that they had destroyed a CW-related institution. Another building which the Americans were allowed to destroy was a military warehouse in Homs, at Misyaaf, which the Americans could not hit because all the missiles aimed at that target were electronically toppled. As the cruise missiles were being deflected, they exploded on the ground injuring 3 civilians. The NATO allies also fired 12 missiles at the Al-Dhumayr AB east of Damascus. Russian news says all 12 were downed by Soviet-era air defense systems.
Of the 110 cruise missiles fired, 14 of them were American Tomahawks. Most of the others were British and Fench. None of the British or French missiles hit any target. Complete failure and a lesson to the allies of the U.S.
An helicopter airbase near the Lebanese border was also struck. However, because the attack took place in the early hours, nobody was at the base and, conveniently, no aircraft were to be found.
Footage of the damage done to the Barza facility:
Meanwhile several U.S.
lawmakers criticized the attack, calling it illegal. Over in the UK, Corbyn said May should have sought
parliamentary approval, saying Britain should be taking on a leadership role, not taking instructions from Washington. Nicola Sturgeon
agreed.
UNSG Guterres gave a half-hearted
reminder aimed at the Coalition of the Shilling that "There's an obligation, particularly when dealing with the matters of peace and security, to act consistently with the Charter of the United Nationals and with international law in general."
Marine Le Pen
slammed Macron's decision to join in on the farce, saying, "These strikes against Syria bring us on a path with unpredictable and potentially damaging consequences. France again loses an opportunity to appear on the international stage as an independent and balanced power in the world."
The Iraqi foreign ministry called the action "
extremely dangerous" and that it will only "give terrorism a new opportunity to expand."
Russian senators and other officials
speculated that the attack was designed to thwart the OPCW investigation into the alleged chemical weapons attack that prompted the bombardment, and called it a war crime. The Russian foreign ministry
expressed similar thoughts:
"It's becoming absolutely clear that those in the West, who are hiding behind the humanitarian rhetoric and trying to justify their military presence in Syria with the need of defeating the jihadists, are on the same side as them [the terrorists], working towards dismembering the country."
The Syrian foreign minister called the attack
barbaric, saying it will only escalate the situation and threaten global security. Assad spoke with Rouhani, during which he
said:
...the attack unites Syrians and increases Damascus's resolve to continue "fighting and crushing terrorism in every inch of the nation."
Bashar Assad told his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, in a telephone conversation on Saturday that the joint attack against Syria came after the Western states realized they had lost control of the situation in the region and credibility in the conflict.
Rouhani, in turn, told Assad that Tehran will stand by Damascus, "expressing his confidence that this aggression would not weaken the determination of the Syrian people in its war against terrorism."
China
condemned the attack and called for restraint and dialogue, as well as an investigation into the alleged Douma attack.
Even U.S. allies like the terrorist group Jaish al-Islam
complained that the attack was a total "farce". It doesn't get much better than that.
And of course there is plenty of
Twitter criticism. Even Alex Jones:
Update 5: Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy held a briefing for mass media today where he summarized the events of the FUKUS attack (
transcript here):
The Pentagon provided 3 satellite
images showing damage to the three buildings they targeted:
A Syrian Army source told
South Front:
Syrian pro-government sources confirmed that at least three facilities of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC) in Damascus were fully destroyed in the strike, including an educational center in Barzah district. However, the sources confirmed that all facilities that got hit were fully evacuated days prior to the strike.
...
A video released by the Syrian al-Akhbarya TV showed that the British missiles fall in empty land and civilian houses in the western Homs countryside. The failed British strike reportedly injured at least three civilians.
Comment: See also: BREAKING: Trump announces US, UK and France launched missile strikes against Syria - UPDATES