After the massive airstrikes on Syria, US President Donald Trump hailed the attack on Twitter.
After the massive airstrikes on Syria, US President Donald Trump hailed the attack on Twitter.
He termed it as a ‘perfectly executed strike’.
‘A perfectly executed strike last night. Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military. Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished! (sic),’ he said on Twitter.
‘So proud of our great Military which will soon be, after the spending of billions of fully approved dollars, the finest that our Country has ever had. There won’t be anything, or anyone, even close! (sic),’ the US President added.
The bombing represents a major escalation in the West's confrontation with Assad's superpower ally Russia, but is unlikely to alter the course of a multi-sided war which has killed at least half a million people in the past seven years.
That in turn raises the question of where Western countries go from here, after a volley of strikes denounced by Damascus and Moscow as at once both reckless and pointless.
By morning, the Western countries said their bombing was over for now. Syria released video of the wreckage of a bombed-out research lab, but also of President Bashar al-Assad arriving at work as usual, with the caption "morning of resilience".
There were no immediate reports of casualties, with Damascus allies saying the buildings hit had been evacuated in advance.
British Prime Minister Theresa May described the strike as "limited and targeted", with no intention of toppling Assad or intervening more widely in the war. She said she had authorised British action after intelligence showed Assad's government was to blame for gassing the Damascus suburb of Douma a week ago.
In a speech she gave a vivid description of the victims of the chemical strike that killed scores, huddling in basements as gas rained down. She said Russia had thwarted diplomatic efforts to halt Assad's use of poison gas, leaving no option but force.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the strikes had been limited so far to Syria's chemical weapons facilities. Paris released a dossier which it said showed Damascus was to blame for the poison gas attack on Douma, the last town holding out in a rebel-held swathe of territory near Damascus which government forces have recaptured in this year's biggest offensive.
Washington described its targets as a centre near Damascus for the research, development, production and testing of chemical and biological weapons, a chemical weapons storage site near the city of Homs and another site near Homs that stored chemical weapons equipment and housed a command post.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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