US Strikes Syria With 59 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles

BREAKING: US strikes Syria with 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles, the effect is devastating (Photos): https://www.saxumspage.blogspot.com/1098137-breaking-us-strikes-syria-59-tomahawk-cruise-missiles.html

The U.S. military attacked a Syria-government airfield with 59 tomahawk missiles on Thursday evening.

The missiles targeted the Shayrat Airfield near Homs, and were in response to a Tuesday chemical weapons attack. Officially announcing the strike, PresidentDonald 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. 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.

A U.S. defense official called the U.S. strike a "one-off," Reuters reported. Nine civilians including four children were killed, the Syrian state news agency claimed, but the Pentagon said civilians were not targeted.

On 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 said 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 on 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." There was no immediate word on casualties, but no people were targeted, an official told NBC.

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.

Still, Tillerson said the U.S. "sought no approval from Moscow" on the strikes.

Syrian armed rebels welcomed the strike. Ahrar Al Sham, an opposition group backed by Gulf states responded: "The armed opposition welcomes any U.S. intervention through surgical strikes that would deter the Assad regime capabilities to kill civilians and shorten the suffering of our people."

Syrian state TV, meanwhile, said, "American aggression targets Syrian military targets with a number of missiles."