War in Syria! US, UK, France forces bomb chemical weapons facilities

The US, UK and France have bombed three government sites in Syria in an early morning operation targeting chemical weapons facilities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he condemned the Western strikes “in the most serious way,” warning of military retaliation if any Russian forces had been hit.

Image/CIA

“The nations of Britain, France, and the United States of America have marshalled their righteous power against barbarism and brutality,” US President Donald Trump said in an address from the White House.

“The purpose of our actions tonight is to establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread, and use of chemical weapons,” he said.

Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the director of the Joint Staff, said that the strikes on Syria overnight by US and allies were “a powerful show of allied unity.”

“We deployed 105 weapons against three targets that will significantly impact the Syrian regimes ability to develop, deploy and use chemical weapons in the future. It’s been said before but I want to emphasize again that by compassion, this strike was double the size of the last strike in April 2017.”

General Joseph Dunford listed three targets that had been struck:

• A scientific research facility in Damascus, allegedly connected to the production of chemical and biological weapons
• A chemical weapons storage facility west of Homs
• A chemical weapons equipment storage site and an important command post, also near Homs

Bashar al-Assad under pressure April 2011 cartoon by Carlos Latuff via wikimedia commons

The French Foreign Ministry has declassified a national intelligence report into the suspected chemical attack in Douma.

It is the first time French authorities have publicly revealed the information on which they have based its claims.

The report states that experts analyzed symptoms identifiable in the images and videos from the Douma attack before coming to their conclusions. It also says witness testimony was taking into consideration, the Foreign Ministry said, though the report states it did not have access to samples from the ground.

The report, which the French Foreign Ministry says was based on technical analyses of open source information and French intelligence, states that two new cases of deployment of toxic nerve agents were “spontaneously reported by civil society and local and international media” from late afternoon on April 7.

“Non-governmental medical organizations active in Ghouta (the Syrian American Medical Society and the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations), whose information is generally reliable, publicly stated that strikes had targeted in particular local medical infrastructure on 6 and 7 April.A massive influx of patients in health centers in Eastern Ghouta (at the very least 100 people) presenting symptoms consistent with exposure to a chemical agent was observed and documented during the early evening. In total, several dozens of people, more than forty according to several sources, are thought to have died from exposure to a chemical substance.”

The report states that no deaths from “mechanical injuries” were visible.

“All of these symptoms are characteristic of a chemical weapons attack, particularly choking agents and organophosphorus agents or hydrocyanic acid. Furthermore, the apparent use of bronchodilators by the medical services observed in videos reinforces the hypothesis of intoxication by choking agents,” the report states.