Trump says ‘something should happen’ with Assad, US military studies options

U.S. officials said 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from warships in the Mediterranean at the Shayrat airfield at 3:40am (0040 GMT), dealing heavy damage to the base from where Washington believes Tuesday’s deadly attack was launched.

The pact, by which the US and Russian Federation exchange information about airstrike operations in Syria, had been in place since September 2015.

In Khan Sheikhun, a rebel-held town in the northwestern province of Idlib, residents still mourning their dead welcomed the United States strike as a way to pressure Damascus.

Assad’s office said the government would redouble its efforts against rebel groups after the USA strike – the first direct military action by Washington against the Damascus regime. The elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps fights alongside Syrian troops on the ground, in what they describe as a combined assault against ISIS.

The Syrian government and Moscow have denied that Syrian forces were behind the gas attack, but Western countries have dismissed their explanation – that chemicals leaked from a rebel weapons depot after an air strike – as not credible.

Russian Federation and Syria have claimed the sarin came from rebel stockpiles hit accidentally by government bombs, an argument dismissed by chemical weapons experts and inconsistent with evidence at the site of the attack.

“It is my strong belief that if the president intends to escalate the USA military’s involvement in Syria, he must come to Congress for an authorization for use of military force”, she said.

U.S. President Donald Trump condemned the “horrible” chemical attack earlier this week. But following the USA missile strike on Syria, the gloves have come off in Moscow, as hopes for friendlier relations fizzle.

Last night, the Trump administration launched almost 60 missiles at the Syrian base responsible for the sarin attack.

WASHINGTON-After ordering the first US military attack against the regime of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, President Donald Trump held a press conference Friday to express his full confidence that the airstrike had completely wiped out the lingering Russian scandal.

“It is in the vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons”.

It immediately suspended a deal with the United States aimed at avoiding clashes in Syrian airspace.

“The risks of a direct military confrontation of Russia and the USA have risen significantly”, Andrei Kortunov, the director of Russian International Affairs Council, said in remarks carried by the Interfax news agency Friday. Because guess who is a de facto supporter of President Trump’s decision now?

USA allies rallied around Washington after President Donald Trump launched the massive strike in retaliation for a “barbaric” chemical attack he blamed on Assad.

What people failed to recognize is that that ultimately led to the peaceful removal, with the help of Russian Federation, of 1300 tons of chemical weapons, which I don’t think could have been accomplished with the use of force. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, sided with Labrador.

“Years of previous attempts at changing Assad’s behaviour have all failed and failed very dramatically”, Trump said as he announced the attack from his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, where he was meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Russian officials also sent the USA a warning, advising Trump to “think about what military actions have led to in Iraq, Libya and other countries”, Interfax news agency reported. If so, it might work but not change the direction of the war – and that direction at present favors Assad. If the intent is not to end the civil war or remove Assad but rather to dissuade Assad from using chemical weapons again, it absolutely could succeed.

How the next moves unfold in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East will likely not be as simple as that. Syria’s Foreign Ministry said the airstrikes were created to “weaken the strength of the Syrian army in confronting terrorist groups”.

Russia’s strong response was echoed in Iran.

The target was the Shayrat airbase in western Syria, from which US officials say Syrian forces launched a chemical weapons strike on Tuesday.

There was one giant actor missing in this entire story, however: The U.S. Congress.

But the bigger questions – that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson must explore on his scheduled visit to Moscow next week – is whether the Russians are willing to use this strike toward a productive objective, despite their anti-U.S. bluster.

The world learned of the chemical attack earlier in the week in footage that showed people dying in the streets and bodies of children stacked in piles. Will we like the Islamic rebels that take over?

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed the US intervention as a “positive and concrete step”, but said deeper USA involvement is needed.

“This administration has acted recklessly without care or consideration of the dire consequences of the United States attack on Syria without waiting for the collection of evidence from the scene of the chemical poisoning”, Gabbard said in her statement last night.

But by then, Obama had capitulated to Russian Federation following Assad’s sarin-gas massacre of more than 1,000 people in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta.

Iran likewise accused the USA of violating global laws. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said such “unilateral action is risky, destructive and violates the principles of worldwide law”.

Syrian officials said at least nine civilians were killed, including four children.

This is a limited strike responding to the chemical weapons attack, a one-off. Aside from the urgent Security Council meeting called by Russian Federation that will take place over the weekend, their response is likely to involve an increase in the use of conventional munitions on opposition sites that will conveniently be branded as “terrorist positions”.

The message from that, he said, was that the government could “go ahead with using barrel bombs, vacuum rockets, cluster bombs, phosphorus weapons and any kind, just not chemical weapons”. She added that further action against Syria is possible. We don’t know what Trump’s long-term strategy for Syria is: Was this a one-off attack? The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the sole power to declare war. They both say they don’t expect Assad to relinquish power unless his ability to wage his air war is finally brought to an end.