President Trump launches 59 Tomahawk Missiles at Syria

The United States launched a tomahawk missile attack against a Syria-government controlled airbase Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Diya TV) – The United States military attacked a Syria-government airfield during the Thursday evening hours with 59 tomahawk missiles.

The missiles targeted the Shayrat Airfield near Homs, and were in response to a Tuesday chemical weapons attack. Officially announcing the strike, President Donald Trump said that the targeted airfield had launched the chemical attack on a rebel-held area, and he called on other nations to oppose Syria’s embattled leader.

“On Tuesday, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians. Using a deadly nerve agent, Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children, while those partaking in the attack had the protection of a gas mask filter to protect them. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack,” Trump said during a Thursday address.

According to a report from Reuters, a U.S. defense official called the strike a “one-off.”

Thursday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that Russia had failed to carry out a 2013 agreement to secure Syrian chemical weapons, adding that Moscow was either complicit or incompetent in its ability to uphold that deal. Tillerson added that the U.S. had a high degree of confidence that sarin nerve gas had been used in Tuesday’s chemical attack in northern Syria.

The Pentagon released details of the strike, saying it was conducted using tomahawk missiles launched from the destroyers USS Porter and USS Ross in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.

“A total of 59 (Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles) targeted aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage, ammunition supply bunkers, air defense systems, and radars,” Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said in an official statement. “As always, the U.S. took extraordinary measures to avoid civilian casualties and to comply with the Law of Armed Conflict.”

The Pentagon called the strike a “proportional response to Assad’s heinous act.” Additionally, Russian forces were notified in advance of the strike, according to the Pentagon. “U.S. military planners took precautions to minimize risk to Russian or Syrian personnel located at the airfield,” Davis said.

Tillerson said the U.S. “sought no approval from Moscow” on the strikes.

Syrian state TV said, “American aggression targets Syrian military targets with a number of missiles.”

Russia’s deputy U.N. envoy, Vladimir Safronkov, warned that day of “negative consequences” if the U.S. carried out military strikes on Syria over the attack. “We have to think about negative consequences, negative consequences, and all the responsibility if military action occurred will be on shoulders of those who initiated such doubtful and tragic enterprise,” Safronkov told reporters.

The Russian response on Friday morning claimed that the strikes violated international law and would do significant damage to relations between Russia and the U.S.