Thousands of Damascus residents were woken up early last Saturday morning by the sounds of explosions and a state television broadcast that defense systems were being deployed in response to what was deemed by the Syrian government as the “American aggression”. The strike occurred at around 4 am on Saturday, April 14th as combined efforts between the United States, the United Kingdom, and France launched over 100 missiles at chemical weapon storage centers near Damascus and Homs. The operation was in direct response to the suspected chemical attack that happened in a suburb of Douma on April 7th, killing at least 70 people. While the Syrian government denied any involvement in the release of bombs filled with chlorine and sarin gases over Douma, and Russia blamed the United Kingdom for staging the attack and provoking the United States, the American and European allies went through with the airstrike anyway.
The warplanes and ships deployed by the three allies released the missiles at three chemical weapon storage and research facilities in what was deemed by President Trump on Twitter as “a perfectly executed strike” that “could not have had a better result”.
The apparent result, as stated by Lieutenant General Kenneth F. McKenzie was that all three bases were destroyed and the warplanes returned safely to the base. However, the accuracy of this statement is unclear as videos from Damascus show Syrian defense missiles being launched into the sky, which they claim shot down the allied missiles before they landed.
Either way, the strikes were purposely limited, in order to refrain from creating even bigger conflict if the Syrian allies of Russia and Iran were to retaliate which means that the resources are still available for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could make more chemical weapons in the future. But President Trump has called on the Syrian allies to end the use of chemical-attacks that have been causing immense amounts of destruction in the 7-year-old civil war that rages on in, calling the attacks “crimes of a monster” that are “evil and despicable”. United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May made similar statements, calling the chemical attack both “cruel and abhorrent” and an act of “pure horror”.
While there remains no immediate retaliation against the allied airstrikes, a sense of foreboding for the future remains. Statements made by the Embassy of Russia in the United States create further apprehensions as they claim that “such actions will not be left without consequences.”
Information obtained from:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/14/world/middleeast/syria-airstrikes-ana…
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/13/world/middleeast/trump-strikes-syria-…
http://abcnews.go.com/International/russia-responds-us-attack-syria-acti…
Images/videos obtained from:
https://media.news4jax.com/photo/2018/04/13/Airstrike-on-Damascus-AP_152…
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/04/15/us/15dc-assess-2/merlin_13684…
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/04/15/us/15dc-assess/merlin_1368076…