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U.S. Launches Military Strikes Against Syria
Topic Started: Apr 6 2017, 09:41 PM (213 Views)
Webster
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.....reports coming in of U.S. military strikes against Syrian targets over the past hour in response to Tuesday's horrific gas attack in northern Syria.....


(The Guardian) News is breaking that the US has launched missile strikes against Syria.

NBC News reports that strikes were launched on al-Shayrat airfield, a Syrian military site close to Homs.

Reports from NBC and CNN say more than 50 Tomahawk missiles were fired.

This follows an apparent change of heart by Donald Trump over action in Syria, sparked by Tuesday’s chemical weapons attack in Idlib that killed more than 70 people.

We will be following developments here on the live blog as they unfold.
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Webster
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--BREAKING: The Syrian Army has confirmed that there are multiple casualties at #Syria's Shuairat Airbase following Trump's illegal strikes. (Sarah Abdallah, 6 April 2017)
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Webster
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--Tillerson and McMaster to brief reporters shortly on record regarding Syria strikes tonight. Per pool. (Jim Acosta, CNN - 6 April 2017)
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Webster
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(The Guardian) Tillerson: Russia 'complicit or incompetent' over Syria chemical weapons deal
--US secretary of state Rex Tillerson and national security adviser HR McMaster are also now briefing reporters at Mar-a-Lago shortly; they were in Florida to consult with Trump ahead of the strike.

Tillerson says Russia has failed to carry out its responsibilities under the 2013 agreement designed to rid Assad of his chemical weapons stocks. He says Moscow was “either complicit or incompetent” in its handling of the deal.

Tillerson tells reporters that the strike was “proportionate” and the US has a “high degree of confidence” that sarin gas was used in this week’s attack in Idlib.
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Webster
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(The Guardian) Pentagon: Russia notified before strike
--The Pentagon has confirmed it used a hotline for minimising the risk of aerial combat between US and Russian jets in eastern Syria to alert Russia of the strike against its Syrian client.

The Russians are sure to have routed that warning to Assad, raising immediate questions about what the strike will have accomplished, and also signalling that the US does not seek escalation.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said: Russian forces were notified in advance of the strike using the established deconfliction line. US military planners took precautions to minimise risk to Russian or Syrian personnel located at the airfield.

We are assessing the results of the strike. Initial indications are that this strike has severely damaged or destroyed Syrian aircraft and support infrastructure and equipment at Shayrat airfield, reducing the Syrian government’s ability to deliver chemical weapons. The use of chemical weapons against innocent people will not be tolerated.
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Webster
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(The Guardian) Here’s the full statement from the Pentagon about the strike.

Key points:
--Russia was alerted in advance.
--59 Tomahawk land attack missiles (TLAM) were launched from two US warships, USS Porter and USS Ross, in the Mediterranean.

Posted Image
--PENTAGON: At direction of POTUS, U.S. forces conducted cruise missile strike against a Syrian Air Force airfield today at about 8:40 pm EDT (Dan Linden, ABC News - 6 April 2017)
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Webster
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(The Guardian) Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said the Shayrat airbase had been used to store chemical weapons used by the regime until 2013, when a deal was struck with the US and Russia to remove its declared arsenal.

Davis said it was used to deliver the chemical weapons dropped on Khan Sheikhun on Tuesday, but could not confirm whether any chemical weapons were still at the site.

However, he stressed that the targets were chosen carefully to avoid the risk of hitting those weapons.
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Webster
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(The Guardian) In Florida, national security adviser HR McMaster has told reporters that Trump was given three options for retaliation against Syria following the chemical weapons attack.

McMaster says the president told advisers to focus on two of those options, and made the final decision on Thursday.

Tillerson says the strikes show that Trump is “prepared to take decisive action to respond to heinous acts”.
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Webster
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--Happening now: Sec of State Rex Tillerson and National Security adviser H.R. McMaster answering questions form media re: Syria w/ @PressSec (Dan Scavino, Jr., White House Director of Social Media - 6 April 2017)
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Webster
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--Oil prices surge as result of the missile attack in Syria. Gas prices may go up. (Joel Franco, 6 April 2017)
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Webster
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(The Guardian) The missile strikes drew mixed reaction on Capitol Hill. Some welcomed what they saw as long overdue action against the human rights abuses of the Assad regime, while others were troubled by the lack of congressional authorisation.

In a joint statement, senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham welcomed Trump’s actions as sending “an important message the United States will no longer stand idly by as Assad, aided and abetted by Putin’s Russia, slaughters innocent Syrians with chemical weapons and barrel bombs”.

The two prominent hawks saw Thursday’s action as a “credible first step” and urged a “new comprehensive strategy” in the region starting with taking Assad’s air force “out of the fight”.

In contrast, Senator Rand Paul, who has long been skeptical of military intervention, expressed his scepticism and demanded a congressional vote: While we all condemn the atrocities in Syria, the US was not attacked. The President needs congressional authorisation for military action and I call on him to come to Congress for a proper debate on our role.

Our prior interventions in this region have done nothing to make us safer and Syria will be no different.


Democrats struck a more unified tone and emphasised the need for congressional approval. Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, said in a statement: Any longer-term or larger military operation in Syria by the Trump administration will need to be done in consultation with the Congress … It is the president’s responsibility to inform the legislative branch and the American people about his larger policy in Syria, as well as the legal basis for this action and any additional military activities in that country.
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Webster
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--March to war in #Syria without a strategy is both dangerous and ILLEGAL. #Trump cannot go to war against #Assad w/o congressional approval. (Rep. Ted Lieu, D-CA -- 6 April 2017)
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Webster
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--Senator @BenSasse released the following statement on the U.S. airstrikes in #Syria. (Fox News, 6 April 2017)
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Webster
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(The Guardian) Though Trump had neither congressional nor international authorisation for the strike, prominent US politicians immediately lent him political cover.

House speaker Paul Ryan called the strike “appropriate and just”:

Earlier this week the Assad regime murdered dozens of innocent men, women, and children in a barbaric chemical weapons attack. Tonight the United States responded. This action was appropriate and just. These tactical strikes make clear that the Assad regime can no longer count on American inaction as it carries out atrocities against the Syrian people.

Resolving the years-long crisis in Syria is a complex task, but Bashar al-Assad must be held accountable and his enablers must be persuaded to change course. I look forward to the administration further engaging Congress in this effort.
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Webster
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(The Guardian) Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also lent his backing to the strike....

--Very rare 6am (Jerusalem time) statement from Netanyahu just now: "Israel fully supports President Trump's decision" (Anshel Pfieffer, Haaretz - 6 April 2017)
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Webster
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(The Guardian) Tillerson contradicts Pentagon over Russia contact
--Contradicting information from the Pentagon – which said “Russian forces were notified in advance of the strike using the established deconfliction line” – secretary of state Rex Tillerson told reporters that Russia had not been alerted: There were no discussions or prior contacts, nor had there been any since the attack with Moscow.
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