Pressure builds on Syria’s Assad after US launches missiles

SHARE Pressure builds on Syria’s Assad after US launches missiles
basharassad040717.jpg

Syrian President Bashar Assad | SANA file photo via AP

BEIRUT — President Bashar Assad’s government came under mounting international pressure after a chemical attack in northern Syria, with even key ally Russia saying its support is not unconditional and the U.S. launching a barrage of cruise missiles at a government-controlled air base in Syria.

Turkey, meanwhile, said samples from victims of Tuesday’s attack, which killed more than 80 people in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, indicate they were exposed to sarin, a highly toxic nerve agent.

Syria rejected the accusations, and Moscow warned against apportioning blame until an investigation has been carried out.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday that “unconditional support is not possible in this current world.”

But he added that “it is not correct to say that Moscow can convince Mr. Assad to do whatever is wanted in Moscow. This is totally wrong.”

RELATED: Trump launches missile strike on Syria ‘to end the slaughter’

Russia has provided military support for the Syrian government since September 2015, turning the balance of power in Assad’s favor. Moscow has used its veto power at the Security Council on several occasions since the civil war began six years ago to prevent sanctions against Damascus.

The two countries “enjoy a relationship of cooperation, of exchange of views and full mutual support,” said Peskov, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin. Assad and his army are “the only real power in Syria that can resist terrorists on the ground,” he said.

A man carries a child after a suspected chemical attack at a makeshift hospital in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, northern Idlib province, Syria. Walid Moallem, Syria’s Foreign Minister, told reporters Thursday, April 6, 2017, that it didn’t use chemical wea

A man carries a child after a suspected chemical attack at a makeshift hospital in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, northern Idlib province, Syria. Walid Moallem, Syria’s Foreign Minister, told reporters Thursday, April 6, 2017, that it didn’t use chemical weapons in Tuesday’s attack, and he blamed the rebels for stockpiling the deadly substance. | Edlib Media Center, via AP

Syria maintains it didn’t use chemical weapons, blaming opposition fighters for stockpiling the chemicals. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the toxic agents were released when a Syrian airstrike hit a rebel chemical weapons arsenal and munitions factory on the eastern outskirts of Khan Sheikhoun.

“I stress, once again, that the Syrian Arab Army did not and will not use such weapons even against the terrorists who are targeting our people,” Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Moallem told reporters in Damascus.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the attack crossed “many, many lines,” and put the blame squarely on Assad’s forces. Speaking Thursday on Air Force One, Trump said the attack “shouldn’t have happened, and it shouldn’t be allowed to happen.”

Early Friday morning Syrian time, the United States fired cruise missiles into Syria in a surprise strike that marked a striking reversal for Trump, who warned as a candidate against the U.S. getting pulled into the Syrian civil war, now in its seventh year.

About 60 U.S. Tomahawk missiles, fired from warships in the Mediterranean Sea, targeted an air base in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack that American officials believe Syrian government aircraft launched with a nerve agent, possibly sarin.

Trump called on “all civilized nations” to join the U.S. in seeking an end to the carnage in Syria.

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said he hopes Trump will take military action, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency quoted him as saying.

Erdogan said Turkey would be prepared to do “whatever falls on us” to support possible military action, the news agency reported.

U.S. officials had said they hoped for a vote late Thursday night on a U.N. Security Council resolution that would condemn the chemical attack, but with council members still negotiating the text into the evening, the British Mission’s political coordinator Stephen Hickey tweeted the vote wouldn’t take place until later.

At the U.N., the United States, which currently holds the presidency of the Security Council, it drafted a resolution along with Britain and France that condemns the use of chemical weapons, particularly in the attack on Khan Sheikhoun, “in the strongest terms.”

Russia objected to key provisions in the resolution and negotiations have been underway to try to bridge the differences.

Britain’s deputy ambassador Peter Wilson said “what we want is a unanimous resolution … and we want to see this done soon.”

A day earlier, Russia had argued against holding Assad’s government responsible.

France’s U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre indicated difficulty in reaching agreement on a resolution.

“We have engaged into negotiations in good faith to adopt a resolution – but make no mistake about it we need a robust text,” he said. “We cannot be willing to have a text at any cost.”

After the attack, hospitals around Khan Sheikhoun were overwhelmed, and paramedics sent victims to medical facilities across rebel-held areas in northern Syria, as well as to Turkey. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group put the death toll at 86.

The attack happened in Syria’s Idlib province about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Turkish border, and the Turkish government — a close ally of Syria’s rebels — set up a decontamination center at a border crossing in Hatay province, where the victims were treated initially.

Turkish officials said nearly 60 victims of the attack were brought to Turkey for treatment and three of them died.

Victims showed signs of nerve gas exposure, including suffocation, foaming at the mouth, convulsions, constricted pupils and involuntary defecation, the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders said. Paramedics used fire hoses to wash the chemicals from the bodies of victims.

Visuals from the scene were reminiscent of a 2013 nerve gas attack on the suburbs of Damascus that left hundreds dead.

In Turkey, Anadolu and the private DHA news agencies on Thursday quoted Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag as saying “it was determined after the autopsy that a chemical weapon was used.”

The Turkish Health Ministry said later that “according to the results of the first analysis, there were findings suggesting that the patients were exposed to chemical substance (sarin).”

WHO experts took part in the autopsies in the Turkish city of Adana late Wednesday, Turkish media reported.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said it has “initiated contact” with Syrian authorities and its Technical Secretariat has been collecting and analyzing information about the allegations. “This is an ongoing investigation,” it said.

Russia has warned against fixing blame for the attack until an investigation is completed.

At a news conference in Damascus, Moallem echoed that statement, saying the Syrian army bombed a warehouse belonging to al-Qaida’s branch in Syria that contained chemical weapons. He did not say whether the government knew in advance that the warehouse contained chemical weapons.

The minister said al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have been bringing chemical weapons from neighboring Iraq.

Asked whether Syria would give access to a fact-finding mission on the use of chemical weapons, Moallem said: “Our experiences with international investigating committees were not encouraging, because they come out of Damascus with certain indications, which then change at their headquarters.”

Syria wants guarantees that any investigation would be impartial and not politicized, Moallem said.

The area of Khan Sheikhoun is difficult to access, and as more time passes since the attack, it will be increasingly difficult to determine exactly what happened.

Phillips reported from Moscow. Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.

The Latest
Only two days after an embarrassing loss to lowly Washington, the Bulls put on a defensive clinic against Indiana.
One woman suffered a gunshot wound to the neck. In each incident, the four to five men armed with rifles, handguns and knives, approached victims on the street in Logan Square, Portage Park, Avondale, Hermosa threatened or struck them before taking their belongings, police said.
For as big of a tournament moment as Terrence Shannon Jr. is having, it hasn’t been deemed “madness” because, under the brightest lights, he has been silent.
This year, to continue making history, the Illini will have to get past No. 2-seeded Iowa State.