U.S. strikes on Syrian base: what we know so far

PanARMENIAN.Net - The United States launched a military strike Thursday, April 6 on a Syrian government target in response to their chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians earlier in the week, CNN says.

On President Donald Trump's orders, U.S. warships launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian government airbase where the warplanes that carried out the chemical attacks were based, U.S. officials said.

Facing his biggest foreign policy crisis since taking office in January, Trump took the toughest direct U.S. action yet in Syria's six-year-old civil war, raising the risk of confrontation with Russia and Iran, Assad's two main military backers, Reuters says.

U.S. officials said they informed Russian forces ahead of the missile attacks and that there were no strikes on sections of the base where Russians were present. But they said the administration did not seek Moscow's approval.

Speaking just before the strikes were announced, Russia's deputy U.N. envoy, Vladimir Safronkov, warned of "negative consequences" if the United States went ahead with military action, saying the blame would be "on shoulders of those who initiated such doubtful and tragic enterprise."

Israel welcomed the move.

The missile strike against a Syrian air base marks the first time the United States has directly attacked the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, AFP says.

Here is what we know so far about the target and the outcome of the strike.

The target

At around 8:40 pm Eastern Time (0040 GMT) on Thursday, the U.S. military fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at the Shayrat airfield near Homs in western Syria.

According to the Pentagon, the facility was used to store chemical weapons and Syrian aircraft.

The Tomahawks targeted aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage, ammunition supply bunkers, air defense systems and radars, the Pentagon said.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said the strike lasted "a couple of minutes."

U.S. intelligence agents believe aircraft from Shayrat conducted the chemical weapons attack on April 4.

National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said measures had been put in place to avoid hitting sarin gas stored at the airfield.

"So that would not be ignited and cause a hazard to civilians or anyone else," McMaster said.

How it was launched

The strike was launched from the destroyers USS Porter and USS Ross in the eastern Mediterranean.

Russian forces were warned ahead of the strike using a special military-to-military hotline.

Davis said the strike was designed to avoid casualties.

"Every precaution was taken to execute this strike with minimal risk to personnel at the airfield," he said.

There was no immediate indication that Russia had tried to shoot down any of the missiles.

The result

According to the Pentagon, initial indications showed the strike had severely damaged or destroyed Syrian aircraft, infrastructure and equipment at Shayrat.

Davis said the runways themselves were not targeted.

U.S. officials stressed the strike was a direct reaction to the chemical attack, and not the beginning of a broader military front against Assad.

"The strike was a proportional response to Assad's heinous act," Davis said.

Legal concerns

The strike was launched at the order of President Donald Trump and was a "proportional response to what was a violation of international war by the Assad regime," Davis said.

But critics questioned whether the action amounted to a declaration of war and said Trump should have gone to Congress first.

America is currently hitting Islamic State targets in Syria under a 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF).

But attacking the government of a sovereign nation raises legal questions.

"President waging military action against Syria without a vote of Congress? Unconstitutional," Democratic Senator Tim Kaine wrote on Twitter.

The U.N. Security Council was expected to hold closed-door consultations on Friday about the U.S. strike on Syria following a request by Bolivia, an elected member of the council, a senior Security Council diplomat said.