Russia, Iran army chiefs vow to continue Syria fight

McCain, who hasn’t been the biggest supporter of the billionaire, said he was pleased with Trump’s decision to listen to his administration’s advice on the foreign situation.

It marked an about-face for the previously non-interventionist president, and the first time the USA has directly attacked the Syrian regime during its long and bloody civil war. Sunni Arab and Turkmen militias allied with the SDF also made forays, along with a separate contingent of Turkish forces in what Ankara dubbed “Operation Euphrates Shield”.

Russian Federation accused Britain of “colonial hypocrisy” after the UK voiced support for U.S. air strikes in Syria during a tense emergency meeting of the United Nations (UN) Security Council. Worldwide forces fly flags to clearly delineate their identities and locations.

In Syria’s increasingly fraught, six-year-old war – involving government forces, US-backed Syrian rebels, Kurdish fighters, the so-called Islamic State (IS) and fighters from Russia, Iran and Turkey – Mr Trump’s responsibility is less clear.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said “getting Assad out is not the only priority” and that countering Iran’s influence in Syria was another.

FILE – In this December 3, 2016 photo, military vehicles guard an Iraqi Army checkpoint flying an Iraqi flag, center, next to a Kurdish checkpoint with a Kurdish flag, outside Irbil, northern Iraq.

United States intelligence officials are also investigating if Russian Federation was directly involved in the attack on Khan Sheikhoun, Syria, where 86 people were killed.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was in Florida with Trump and is scheduled to go to Moscow next week, said he was disappointed but not surprised by the Russian reaction because it showed continued support for Assad. Can Tillerson make the case for Russian Federation shifting its focus in Syria toward defeating Islamic State, which may have trained the Kyrgyz-born suicide bomber behind the attack on a subway train in St. Petersburg?

A FURIOUS Russia has sent an ominous warning to the US, declaring the military action against Syria has sent the two superpowers dangerously close to war.

At the time, several American ships in the Mediterranean were poised to launch missiles, only for Obama to abruptly pull back after key U.S. ally Britain and the U.S. Congress balked at his plan. Bashar al-Assad is a heinous dictator who has been terrorizing his own people for years, and the most recent crime against innocents of which he’s been accused-indiscriminately killing dozens of civilians with a banned chemical poison in the village of Khan Sheikhoun-was particularly grotesque. “And, of course, warning the Russians means that the USA effectively warned the Syrians, too”, Oliker said.

Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told a UN Security Council meeting Friday that the USA is “prepared to do more” in Syria.

Iran, which supports Assad and has been criticized by Trump, condemned the strike, with President Hassan Rouhani saying it would bring “only destruction and danger to the region and the globe”. “I don’t think Vladimir Putin, as shrewd as is, wants to take that on”. This is why the American strike has broad backing from US allies around the world.

Senator Marco Rubio, who ran against Mr Trump in the 2016 Republican primary, defended the president’s response. “A well-reasoned approach would attempt to excise both from Syria”.

“I mean, children are going to die”.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said any difference in nuance was inadvertent and unintentional, and declined to comment further.

That’s exactly what Trump should be thinking about, Antony J. Blinken said. “He was not elected to fix problems in Syria”.

Koh creatively argued that US actions didn’t rise to the level of “hostilities”, largely because Obama was only bombing the country, and the Libyan military was unable to shoot down USA planes.