US and allies launch strikes on Syria following chemical weapons attack by ‘terrible regime’
Trump chastised Syria’s two main allies, Russia and Iran, for their roles in supporting ‘murderous dictators’
The United States, Britain and France carried out a wave of strikes against Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime on Saturday in response to alleged chemical weapons attacks that President Donald Trump branded the “crimes of a monster.”
As Trump embarked on a White House address to announce the action – taken in defiance of Russian warnings – explosions were heard in the Syrian capital Damascus, signalling a new chapter in a brutal seven-year-old civil war.
After dawn, Syrians draped in government flags descended on the heart of the capital in a show of defiance against the strikes.
Trump said he had ordered US forces to launch precision strikes “on targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.”
He said a combined operation had been launched with the forces of Britain and France, whose leaders have rallied behind Trump’s call for a response to an alleged chemical attack on the town of Douma a week ago that rescuers and monitors say killed more than 40 people.
“This massacre was a significant escalation in a pattern of chemical weapons use by that very terrible regime,” Trump said. “The evil and the despicable attack left mothers and fathers, infants and children thrashing in pain and gasping for air. These are not the actions of a man. They are crimes of a monster instead.”
Joseph Dunford, Washington’s top general, said the strikes hit targets near Damascus and in Homs province including a scientific research centre, storage facilities and a command post.