US-led Syria strikes: Weapons, targets and real motive

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So as it turned out, US President Donald Trump wasn’t bluffing after all when he threatened a strike on Syria with “new” and “smart” missiles in his brazen tweet on Wednesday.

Trump made good on those threats as the US military, in coordination with British and French forces, pounded Syria with airstrikes using “precision missiles” in the wee hours of Saturday.

The move is being seen as the biggest intervention by Western powers, and perhaps the most ominous escalation, in the war-torn Middle Eastern nation with an increased possibility of a confrontation with Syria's biggest ally, Russia.

"A short time ago, I ordered the United States Armed Forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad,” Trump said in a televised address from the White House on Friday evening. Even as he spoke, multiple explosions in Damascus and other parts of Syria were reported.

Analysis: The rationale behind Trump’s Syria missile threat

US President Donald Trump announces military strikes on Syria while delivering a statement from the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 13, 2018. /Reuters Photo

Anti-aircraft fire is seen over Damascus, Syria, in the wee hours of April 14, 2018. /VCG Photo

The airstrikes at multiple targets began around 9:00 pm Eastern Time Friday (0100 GMT Saturday) and saw US, French and British assets firing missiles at the Assad regime's chemical production facilities.

British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron soon confirmed that their countries had joined in the attack. May said the "limited and targeted strike" was part of joint action with France and the US in response to Syria's latest alleged chemical weapons atrocity, while Macron said that the West “cannot tolerate the normalization of the use of chemical weapons."

Syrian state media slammed the strikes as illegal and "doomed to fail," while a furious Russia reiterated that the West would bear the “responsibilities” of the “consequences.”

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the joint strikes were a "one time shot" designed to send a "clear message" to Assad and stop his chemical weapons program, and not intended to pull the West into Syria's civil war.

Weapons and targets

US officials told Reuters that Tomahawk cruise missiles and other types of bombs were used in the raid, with UK's defense ministry saying that four Royal Air Force Tornado jets fired Storm Shadow missiles as part of the strikes.

The French presidency on Saturday issued a video on Twitter showing what it said were Rafale warplanes taking off in an intervention against chemical weapons facilities in Syria. The French military later said Mirage and Rafale jets were involved in the strikes along with four frigates.

The Syrian Army said about 110 missiles were launched on targets in and around Damascus. The Russian defense ministry confirmed the claims saying more than 100 cruise missiles and air-to-land missiles were fired in the joint strikes, adding that "a significant number" were shot down by Syrian air defenses.

The Russian military said the missiles were fired from US ships in the Red Sea as well as from tactical aircraft above the Mediterranean and by US strategic bombers from near the Al-Tanf base in opposition-held territory in Syria.

At a Pentagon briefing, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford said the targets included a Syrian research facility and a chemical weapons storage facility.

A second US official said targets were being carefully selected with the aim of damaging Assad’s ability to conduct further gas attacks, while avoiding the risk of spreading poisonous fallout in civilian areas.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the strikes hit Syrian military bases and chemical research centers in and around Damascus.

"The Western coalition strikes targeted scientific research centers, several military bases, and the bases of the Republican Guard and Fourth Division in the capital Damascus and around it," said the Observatory.

A French fighter jet prepares to land at RAF Akrotiri, a military base Britain maintains on Cyprus, April 14, 2018. /Reuters Photo

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman later said that a military research center and depot near the city of Homs in the country's center were also hit. Britain's defense ministry also confirmed that UK jets struck a Syrian military facility, west of Homs.

Reuters cited a witness saying at least six loud explosions were heard in Damascus in the early hours of Saturday and smoke was seen rising over the Syrian capital. Another witness said the Barzeh district of Damascus had been hit in the strikes. Barzeh is the location of a major Syrian Scientific Research Center (SSRC).

Analysts had predicted that the SSRC, a government agency overseeing various scientific activities, was always a target of the Western strikes, because of their alleged role in producing chemical munitions used by government forces.

An intelligence document by a "Western intelligence" obtained by the BBC in 2017 pointed at three sites – all branches of the SSRC – where prohibited weapons are produced and maintained, namely in Masyaf, in Hama province, and Barzeh and Jamraya, on the outskirts of the capital Damascus. The latter was struck by what were thought to be Israeli jets before last December.

'Moral leadership?'

Syrians wave Russian and Syrian flags during a protest against US-led air strikes in Damascus, Syria, April 14, 2018. /Reuters Photo

Syria and Russia responded furiously to the Western strikes, with Damascus calling it an illegal aggression and Moscow questioning the so-called moral leadership of the West.

"The aggression is a flagrant violation of international law, a breach of the international community's will, and it is doomed to fail," said state news agency SANA.

Syrian state television reported that “Syrian air defense blocked American, British and French aggression on Syria.” It added that 13 missiles were blocked.

“Syria faces the American, French and British aggression with the same strength that faced terrorists. Syria air defenses [are] still dealing with aggression missiles and [have downed] many,” SANA added.

Warning of consequences, Russia's ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, said that Moscow is again being threatened. "We warned that such actions will not be left without consequences. All responsibility for them rests with Washington, London and Paris."

Russia also questioned the moral leadership of the Western powers involved in the attack. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook: "Those behind all this claim moral leadership in the world and declare they are exceptional. You need to be really exceptional to shell Syria's capital at the moment when it had gained a chance of a peaceful future."

"American and other Western media must understand their responsibility for what happened," Zakharova wrote.

The real motive?

Hundreds of anti-war demonstrators protest against the war on Syria in Whitehall outside Downing Street in London, UK, April 13, 2018. /VCG Photo

Ahead of the strikes, Syria’s UN envoy Bashar al-Jaafari hinted that the Western forces are using the pretext of an alleged chemical attack to target the Syrian government, in a tacit reference to the regime change policy being pursued by the US and its allies.

“It is wrong to think that the massive Western forces gathered in the east of the Mediterranean are motivated by love for a number of terrorist thugs in Douma… No, these forces target the Syrian state and its allies,” Jaafari said, addressing the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Friday.

If the US, Britain, and France think they can attack Syria and violate its sovereignty, the Syrian people will confront them and will not allow anyone to transgress upon their country’s sovereignty, Sana quoted Jaafari as telling the UNSC.

The British prime minister vehemently refuted those claims stressing that the strikes were not about “regime change,” the BBC reported.

"This is not about intervening in a civil war. It is not about regime change. It is about a limited and targeted strike that does not further escalate tensions in the region and that does everything possible to prevent civilian casualties," May asserted.

She said that the Syrian government had demonstrated a "persistent pattern of behavior" when it came to the use of chemical weapons, that "must be stopped," echoing the US defense secretary’s remarks.

A photo released on April 14, 2018, on the Twitter page of the Syrian government’s central military media, shows an explosion in the sky over Damascus seen through a night-vision device after Western strikes reportedly hit Syrian military bases and chemical research centers in and around Syria's capital. /VCG Photo

The US and its allies have blamed Damascus and Moscow for the Douma attack, while Syria and Russia have accused the Western-backed opposition of staging the “fake” and “false flag” attack.

Russia has repeatedly alleged that the Douma attack was staged by Syrian rebel groups to trigger Western military intervention, while also suggesting that the US missile strikes are aimed at destroying the evidence and preventing an independent probe.

Chemical weapons experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), who are already in Syria on a fact-finding mission, were to begin their investigations in Eastern Ghouta from Saturday. The fate of this mission is now under a cloud following the US-led missile attacks.

Trump said he was prepared to sustain the response until Assad's government stopped its use of chemical weapons.

Will this Western intervention lead to a full-blown conflict with Syria's allies including Russia and Iran? The response from Moscow and Damascus over the next few days will determine the potential fallout.

(With input from agencies)

[Cover Photo: Hundreds of anti-war demonstrators gather on Whitehall outside Downing Street in London, UK, April 13, 2018. /VCG Photo]

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