[TheVrist]

[kellyhound]

Capt Davis stressed that the US had taken "extraordinary measures" to avoid civilian casualties and that planners "took precautions to minimise risk to Russian or Syrian personnel located at the airfield".

Russian forces were notified in advance of the strike using a "de-confliction line" set up to ensure US warplanes attacking IS positions in Syria are not accidentally attacked by Russian jets, he added.

Mr Trump's National Security Adviser, H R McMaster, said measures had also been put in place to avoid hitting what were believed to be stores of Sarin at Shayrat, so that it "would not be ignited and cause a hazard to civilians or anyone else".

The Syrian military said the strike had left six personnel and a number of others injured, and caused "huge material damage".

The official Sana news agency reported that nine civilians living in villages near the airbase, including four children, had also been killed in the strike.

A Russian defence ministry spokesman said an equipment depot, a training building, a mess, six Syrian Air Force MiG-23s in repairing hangars, as well as a radar station were destroyed. The runway, taxiways and aircraft at parking places were not damaged, he added.

The spokesman also described the effectiveness of the US strike as "extremely low", saying only 23 missiles had reached Shayrat.

"It is obvious to any specialist that the decision to carry out an air strike on Syria had been taken in Washington long before the events in Khan Sheikhoun, which only served as a formal pretext," he said, explaining that a "wide range of reconnaissance and planning measures" would have been necessary.

Senior members of Syria’s armed opposition said between 14 and 20 ageing Sukhoi jets had been destroyed in the base – roughly 10% of the Syrian air fleet. Its two runways were damaged, as were storage sites, a weapons dump and an air defence system.

But the damage to the runways appears not to have put the base out of action: by Friday, government warplanes were once again reported to have taken off from the runway.

Up to six people, believed to be civilians, were killed outside the base by shrapnel that flew up to 500 metres, an opposition member said.

Iranian forces had been housed in a nearby hotel in recent months, but they too were evacuated on Thursday night.

The Pentagon believes that Russian officers were present inside the sprawling site when a sarin-filled shell was loaded on to one of the Sukhoi jets on the night of 3 April. US intelligence officials have not established, however, whether the Russians knew that the process was happening, or had specific knowledge of the attack.

US military officials also released what they said was a flight path taken by the jet that launched the attack at 6.30am the following morning, which plotted it taking off from the base, then returning to it after manoeuvring over the town of Khan Sheikhun, where more than 70 people were killed in Tuesday’s gas attack.

Washington used an established channel with Russian commanders to warn of the upcoming strike, which the Russians then relayed to their hosts. Strike planners did not anticipate casualties among Assad’s forces, nor decisive damage to the regime’s air fleet.

Instead, the bombing was tailored to strike a symbolic blow at the heart of one of Assad’s most strategic bases, which has featured heavily in allegations of chemical use.

Western intelligence officials believe the same base was used to launch a sarin attack in eastern Hama in early December, where up to 93 people were killed and more than 300 others suffered the same symptoms as the survivors of the attack on Khan Sheikhun.

The Guardian visited Khan Sheikhun on Thursday and saw the impact point of the shell that contained sarin – a hole on a road metres away from where dozens of those who died in the attack had been asleep in their homes.

Buildings near the site had not been damaged by recent air strikes, directly contradicting Russia’s claims that a jihadist weapons depot had been hit, causing a release of sarin claimed to have been stored there.

The Guardian inspected all surrounding commercial buildings. All contained small stores of agricultural goods; none of the sites had been contaminated.

Khan Sheikhun was again bombed on Friday by jets, believed to be Syrian. One senior western official said the decision to launch the strike had likely been driven by local battlefield dynamics, rather than regional political considerations.

“This is vengeance for the regime for what happened in Hama,” the official said. “This is them saying that they are the most ruthless force in the game, that they will hit 10 times harder than anyone who hits them. It is also about trying to open up a path to Idlib, for the eventual ground attack there.

“But they badly miscalculated. Somebody didn’t work out that it would be easy to get samples to the border to prove what happened. This was never going to remain shrouded in mystery.”

Another opposition supporter, who had been extensively involved in arming the opposition earlier in the war, said: “[The regime] are really quite old school. They have not evolved in their thinking at all. This is about projection of power to them. The more brutal, the better. Anything to incite fear. Obama was never speaking their language by trying to negotiate. They will never negotiate in good faith.”

Officials in Beirut and Turkey said there was little risk of an escalation and that the “free hand” that Assad had perceived he had no longer applied after the US strike.

“That’s the best we can hope for,” said an Ankara-based diplomat. “He will have to think very carefully about what he does from here. He is dealing with an unpredictable and volatile US president. That in itself removes the impunity.”

[Steve]

Originally Posted by ianmd3000 ↗

It's all speculation, and that's all it'll ever be.

Truth does NOT 'trickle down.'

Even die hard Trump supporters are calling him a dickhead for what he did, helping ISIS was never going to win him any plaudits.

[simonis87]

Originally Posted by Zambini ↗

The USA won't stand by watching innocent children get killed.


Other countries: Man the fuck up and do the same

Keep dreaming ....the only reason usa is responding cuz syria is in weak state and they can push their agenda now. If it hapenened in any strongers countries (take china for example)
they wouldnt do shit. Basicly they bulling the weak while thei are down while pretending that they actually doing it for killed inocent or whatever story your naive people believes in.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by ianmd3000 ↗

He IS a dickhead for doing this. He may have been influenced/strong-armed by the globalist pigs in DC, but he's ultimately responsible for it.

I've been on his side for the last year, but I think I'll be signing off on him if he doesn't get his shit together...

It'll take a lot to redeem himself after this fuck-up.

I think it's rather odd that the last supposed chemical attack was in 2013, Trump comes to power mid January and then there's another one a few months later, and he doesn't hesitate to fire missiles at Assads military infrastructure whilst naturally blaming him for the attack.

We are naturally not privy to the supposed irrefutable evidence it was Assad, because it fucking wasn't Assad, he would have to be suicidal to have done that.

I hate these politicians blatantly lying to us and there's not a thing we can do about, I console myself with knowing this prick has shown his true colours within a few months of office, and his supporters now see what they voted in, hate to say I told people so but I did.

My government backed him up of course, weak cunts.

[wmbondurant]

[Zambini]

Originally Posted by simonis87 ↗

Keep dreaming ....the only reason usa is responding cuz syria is in weak state and they can push their agenda now. If it hapenened in any strongers countries (take china for example)
they wouldnt do shit. Basicly they bulling the weak while thei are down while pretending that they actually doing it for killed inocent or whatever story your naive people believes in.

You mean like bombing Germany, Nuking Japan and kicking china and North Korean out of South Korea?

Yeah, we just pick on the weaker countries

What has your country done or spent to try and bring peace?

[Oswald2001]

Originally Posted by wmbondurant ↗

https://CNNlies.propaganda

CNN?

Srsly?

This guy could have been broadcasting from East LA.



What troubles me most about this whole 'chemical attack' HOAX, is that ALL the wrong people are happy with it.

The odds are 10,000:1 that Assad did NOT do it.


It's just another 'Babies Thrown Out of Incubators' HOAX.

[Oswald2001]

Years ago, there was the moo slum terrorist Pallywood Propaganda 'Green Helmet' (singular) CON GAME in Lebanon.

All FAKE NEWS in order to blame...the Israelis.

The same guy was caught in many staged photos.

Often taking the same dead child around with him as a prop.


***

Note the clean large blue plastic pacifier and it's chain on the child to provide a stark contrast to highlight the fact that the it was a dead infant and to how dirty/filthy it was.

It was placed there by the moo slum terrorist propagandists.

***


So now they have expanded that scam with the so-called 'White Helmets'. (plural)

Why?

All in order to blame...Assad.

Because The West is STUPID.

[Oswald2001]

Here he is again.

My, oh my, he certainly does get around.

It looks like the same child with the same shirt but a different pair of pants.

Using a dead child as...a prop?

Could anyone be so heartless, manipulative and cynical?

Yes, of course.

This is that with which we are really dealing.


You can Believe Nothing from moo slums.