http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...e-strike-on-syria-airbase/article17865146.ece
U.S. officials said 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from navy ships in the Mediterranean at the Shayrat airfield at 3:40 am (0040 GMT), targeting the base from where Washington believes Tuesday's deadly attack was launched.
Calling the strike a “flagrant aggression”, the Syrian army said it had killed six people and caused extensive damage to the base.
The attack was hailed by the Syrian opposition and supported by the U.S. allies, including Britain, France, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
President Donald Trump ordered missile strikes against an air base in Syria in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held town. Graphic shows location of Khan Sheikhun and the Shayrat Air Base.
The missiles were fired from the USS Porter and the USS Ross, which belong to the US Navy's Sixth Fleet and are in the eastern Mediterranean.
The strike targeted radars, aircraft, air defence systems and other logistical components at the base south of Homs in central Syria.
The U.S. officials said measures were put in place to avoid hitting sarin gas they said was stored at the airfield.
“The airbase was almost completely destroyed — the runway, the fuel tanks and the air defences were all blown to pieces,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain based monitoring group said at least seven servicemen were killed, including an air commodore.
The airfield was the second most important for Syria's air force, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told
AFP, after the Latakia airbase in Mr. Assad's coastal heartland, where Russia also maintains extensive facilities.
Syria's opposition and rebel fighters, who have for years urged more direct U.S. military action in support of their uprising, hailed the strike and called for more.
The National Coalition, the main opposition grouping, called on Washington to take further steps to "neutralise" the regime's air power.
“We hope for more strikes... and that these are just the beginning,” spokesman Ahmad Ramadan told
AFP.
The White House was quick to paint the decision as limited to deterring the use of chemical weapons, and not part of a broader military campaign to remove Mr. Assad by force.
“The intent was to deter the regime from doing this again, and it is certainly our hope that this has had that effect,” Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis told reporters.
U.S. officials said Russia's military in Syria was informed of the strike before hand in order to avoid casualties that could prompt a broader crisis.
Just days before he is due to visit Moscow, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson accused Russia of being incompetent or complicit in permitting Mr. Assad's actions.
Mr. Tillerson said the attack should leave no one in any doubt that Mr. Trump is willing to act if any actor "crosses the line."
It will send ripples around the world, from Pyongyang to Tehran, as nations and leaders take the measure of the novice but often bellicose President.
The timing of the strike, during a meeting with China's President Xi Jinping, will give weight to Mr. Trump's threats to deal with North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes unilaterally if necessary.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump decried the suspected chemical attack as an "affront to humanity."
"It crossed a lot of lines for me," he said, alluding to Barack Obama's failure to enforce his own "red line" on the use of chemical weapons in Syria four years ago.
In 2013, Mr. Trump urged then President Obama not to intervene against Mr. Assad.
By:
AFP | Moscow | Updated: April 7, 2017 6:11 pm
http://indianexpress.com/article/wo...s-strike-on-syria-base-russian-media-4603773/
A still image taken from a video broadcast on Syrian state television on April 7, 2017, shows a Syrian army airbase that was hit by a US strike near the city of Homs, Syria. (Source: SYRIAN TV via Reuters)
Nine planes as well as munition and fuel depots were destroyed in the US strike on Syria’s Shayrat airbase early today but the runway was intact, the Russian state channel Rossiya24 reported from the scene. “According to preliminary information, nine Syrian airplanes were destroyed,” its correspondent said in a report from the base, broadcast hours after the strike at 0040 GMT on Friday.
Stores with ammunition and fuel were also targeted, he said, adding that a fire and some explosions were ongoing. “But not all equipment has been destroyed, there is some that was not impacted by the strike,” the correspondent said. “The landing strip… is practically not impacted,” he added. Footage showed the runway intact but covered in debris, as well as two planes sitting in concrete hangars.
The aircraft were apparently not heavily damaged while some other hangars were charred and surrounded by rubble. Moscow slammed the attack ordered by US President Donald Trump as “thoughtless” and called it “aggression against a sovereign state” that violated international norms.
Trump ordered the strike in retaliation for a suspected chemical attack Tuesday after the UN Security Council failed to agree on a probe into the bombing that killed at least 86 people.