Staff ReporterUS strikes Syrian airbase over chemical weapon attack. United States President Trump ordered a cruise missile strike against Syria Thursday, saying “no child of God should ever suffer” the horror of the chemical weapons attack Syria launched on its own people.
Trump ordered the strike against Syria early Friday local time in retaliation for the chemical weapons attack that killed 86 people on Tuesday, he said.
Later, Homs governor Talal Barazi told The Associated Press there had been deaths from the missile strikes, but gave no number of casualties.
“I believe — God willing — that the human casualties are not big, but there is material damage. We hope there are not many victims and martyrs,” Barazi told Reuters by telephone.
The attack, the first conventional assault on another country ordered by Trump, comes a day after he declared that the chemical weapons assault had “crossed many, many lines,” including causing the deaths of 27 children.
From his resort in Palm Beach, Fla., Trump said Syrian President Bashar Assad “launched a horrible chemical attack on innocent civilians using a deadly nerve agent. Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered at this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror.
“Tonight I ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched. It is in this vital national security interest of the Untied States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons,” Trump said.
Years of previous attempts to change Assad’s behavior had failed, Trump said.
