{"id":11197,"date":"2018-04-13T22:46:56","date_gmt":"2018-04-14T02:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=11197"},"modified":"2018-04-13T22:46:56","modified_gmt":"2018-04-14T02:46:56","slug":"us-uk-and-france-launch-strikes-on-syria-chemical-weapons-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2018\/04\/13\/us-uk-and-france-launch-strikes-on-syria-chemical-weapons-sites\/","title":{"rendered":"US, UK and France launch strikes on Syria chemical weapons sites"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">an early morning operation targeting alleged chemical weapons sites.<\/p>\n<p>The strikes are in response to a suspected chemical attack on the Syrian town of Douma last week.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A combined operation with the armed forces of France and the United Kingdom is now underway,&#8221; President Trump said in an address to the nation.<\/p>\n<p>Explosions were reported near the Syrian capital Damascus.<\/p>\n<p>Officials at a Pentagon briefing listed three targets that had been struck:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">A scientific research facility in Damascus, allegedly connected to the production chemical and biological weapons<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">A chemical weapons storage facility west of Homs<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">A chemical weapons equipment storage and an important command post, also near Homs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Syrian state television said government forces had shot down more than a dozen missiles.<\/p>\n<p>US Secretary of Defence James Mattis told reporters there were no reports of losses in the operation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Right now, this is a one-time shot, and I believe it has sent a very strong message,&#8221; he said, saying the first wave of strikes was over.<\/p>\n<p>President Trump had earlier said: &#8220;We are prepared to sustain this response until the Syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>UK Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed British involvement, saying there was &#8220;no practicable alternative to the use of force&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>But she also said the strikes were not about &#8220;regime change&#8221;.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/DBF1\/production\/_100850365_syria_strikes_map_to_edit_v1_640_english-nc.png\" alt=\"Map\" width=\"640\" height=\"585\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<p>UK strikes carried out by four Tornado jets hit a military site near the city of Homs, which is believed to have housed precursor materials for chemical weapons, the ministry of defence said.<\/p>\n<p>French President Emmanuel Macron also confirmed his country&#8217;s participation in the operation.<\/p>\n<p>The strikes were ordered &#8220;on targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities&#8221; of the Syrian government, Mr Trump said.<\/p>\n<p>The US president said the purpose was &#8220;to establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread and use of chemical weapons&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These are not the actions of a man, they are the crimes of a monster instead,&#8221; he said of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n<p>Syria has denied carrying out the attack and its ally, Russia, had warned that Western military strikes would risk starting a war.<\/p>\n<p>A US official told Reuters news agency that Tomahawk cruise missiles were being used against multiple locations in Syria.<\/p>\n<p>The agency also quoted a witness in Damascus as saying &#8220;at least six loud explosions&#8221; were heard in the capital.<\/p>\n<p>Syrian state television also confirmed strikes on Damascus. The country&#8217;s air defences have also been deployed, reports say.<\/p>\n<p>British-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said strikes had hit the Syrian Scientific Research Facility in the capital, along with several military sites.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-middle-east-43762251\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">an early morning operation targeting alleged chemical weapons sites. The strikes are in response to a suspected chemical attack on the Syrian town of Douma last week. &#8220;A combined operation with the armed forces of <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2018\/04\/13\/us-uk-and-france-launch-strikes-on-syria-chemical-weapons-sites\/\" title=\"US, UK and France launch strikes on Syria chemical weapons sites\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,3],"tags":[5062,5063,5064,1097],"class_list":{"0":"post-11197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-usa","10":"tag-damascus","11":"tag-donald-trump-theresa-may","12":"tag-military-action","13":"tag-syria","14":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11199,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11197\/revisions\/11199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}