
US ships stationed in the Mediterranean Sea reportedly launched the strike on Syria’s Shayrat airbase on Thursday night local time.
.@JeffFlake @wolfblitzer @kshaheen @MSNBC #pt: The 1st U.S airstrike has just hit Al-Shayrat airbase SE of #Homs city.
US President Donald Trump spoke from his Mar-a-Lago resort following the airstrikes, accusing Assad of using nerve gas that killed civilians in Idlib.
Calling it a “targeted military strike,” Trump said the Homs airfield was where the chemical gas attack earlier this week originated from.
Trump described the attack as defending a “vital national security interest” and called upon “civilized nations” to help end the “slaughter and bloodshed in Syria.”
“There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the chemical weapons convention, and ignored the urging of the UN security council,” Trump said. “Years of previous attempts at changing Assad’s behaviour have all failed and failed very dramatically.”
Fifty-nine US Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles were launched from the US warships USS Porter and USS Ross from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said in a statement. Davis added that “extraordinary measures” were taken “to avoid civilian casualties,” and that “every precaution was taken” to minimize the “risk to personnel at the airfield.”
The Pentagon has released photos of Tomahawk missiles, showing the moment they were being launched from the US warships in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea to Syria.
Pentagon releases first pictures of Tomahawk cruise missiles launching from US Navy warships on strike in #Syria
The governor of Homs province said American strike at the Syrian army installation was helping terrorist forces…