The U.S. military attacked a Syria-government airfield with 59 tomahawk missiles on Thursday evening.
The missiles targeted the Shayrat Airfield near Homs, and were in response to a Tuesday chemical weapons attack. Officially announcing the strike, President Donald Trump said that the targeted airfield had launched the chemical attack on a rebel-held area, and he called on other nations to oppose Syria's embattled leader.
"On Tuesday, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians. Using a deadly nerve agent, Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack," Trump said during a Thursday address.
A U.S. defense official called the U.S. strike a "one-off," Reuters reported.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that Russia had failed to carry out a 2013 agreement to secure Syrian chemical weapons, adding that Moscow was either complicit or incompetent in its ability to uphold that deal.
Tillerson said that the U.S. had a high degree of confidence that sarin nerve gas had been used in Tuesday's chemical attack in northern Syria.
puns4life on April 7th, 2017 at 02:44 UTC »
> The U.S. military gave Russian forces advanced notice of its strikes on a Syrian airbase and did not hit sections of the base where the Russians were believed to be present, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said on Thursday. > Davis, briefing reporters on the operation, said the U.S. military had "multiple" conversations with Russian forces on Thursday before the strike, using a line of communication that had previously been established to prevent an accidental clash in Syria during the fight against Islamic State. http://live.reuters.com/Event/Syria_conflict/823809983
dadoffive on April 7th, 2017 at 01:33 UTC »
Is this the beginning of a response, or "the response" is the most important question the world needs answered ASAP.
Phoenix_King76 on April 7th, 2017 at 01:21 UTC »
That's a lot of missiles.