Allied strike reveals robust, ‘clandestine’ chemical program in Syria

DOHA, Qatar — France, Britain and the United States will continue military action against Syrian President Bashar Assad should he use any more chemical weapons on his people, the allies warned on Saturday, after launching strikes on Friday night against the embattled government.

The attack was a response to a reported chemical attack that affected hundreds of women and children in the town of Douma, in the Syrian province eastern Ghouta, last week. Western powers published evidence on Saturday explaining their conclusion that Assad was responsible for the strike, which, according to US officials, deployed both chlorine and sarin from helicopters only in possession of the Assad regime.

Russian and Syrian forces– which deny involvement in the April 7 event– have since taken control of Douma, and are denying access to the site for international chemical weapons inspectors.

French Rafale jets, British Tornado jets and US B-1 bombers took part in the Friday night raid, launching from bases in Cyprus, France and possibly Qatar, where the US earlier this month deployed several attack aircraft. The three Western nations also moved frigates and destroyers into range over the course of the week from which they fired cruise missiles.

Their targets were core infrastructure of Assad’s “clandestine” chemical weapons program, shoddily hidden from the international community since a 2013 agreement ostensibly rid him of his entire stockpile, according to an intelligence document declassified by the French government and released in conjunction with the strike. A senior Trump administration official described the sites as “research, processing and storage facilities” critical to the program.

The attack included over 100 projectiles– roughly twice the amount of firepower as what US President Donald Trump launched against a single Syrian airstrip one year ago, in response to another chemical attack by the Assad regime against civilians.

Both springtime attacks were intended as deterrents against future chemical weapons use. The 2017 attack targeted the delivery site of that attack, in Khan Sheikhoun, which took place in the infancy of Trump’s presidency.

This time, the Pentagon says that its actions were an allied response that struck a blow to the infrastructure of Assad’s chemical weapons program itself.

The use of chemical arms “added to that brutality” of the Assad regime’s war to regain control of Syria, and “could not go without a response,” a senior US official told reporters on Saturday.

Paris’ declassified document, seven pages long, asserts that Assad has maintained a covert chemical arms program since vowing to shut it down five years ago. At that time, former US president Barack Obama declined to strike at Assad militarily in the aftermath of a sarin attack that killed hundreds of children, in exchange for removal of his chemical weapons stockpiles, and for access for the UN’s Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to monitor their destruction.

Russia and the US brokered the deal at the time, which then-Secretary of State John Kerry said would remove “100% of Syria’s chemical weapons.” The OPCW won the Nobel Peace Prize for its work that year.

France’s declassified assessment concludes, “beyond possible doubt, a chemical attack was carried out against civilians at Douma on 7 April 2018.”

“That there is no plausible scenario other than that of an attack by Syrian armed forces as part of a wider offensive in the Eastern Ghouta enclave,” the document reads.

And yet shared on social media the morning after the raid were photos and videos of Assad walking into work, like any other day – a message to the public that nothing had changed. The Syrian government, as well as its patrons in Russia and Iran, deny that chemical weapons were in Douma by Assad force s– or, indeed, that Assad has any chemical weapons in his possession.

The US defense secretary described the operation as a “one-time shot” over a single night. But Trump’s envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley, said that US forces remain “locked and loaded” for additional action, should Assad continue deploying chemical arms.

“The purpose of our actions tonight is to establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread, and use of chemical weapons,” Trump said in his remarks to the nation, announcing the operation. “Establishing this deterrent is a vital national security interest of the United States.”

He wrote on Twitter on Saturday morning that the attack was a “mission accomplished,” sparking criticism on the medium that he was invoking former President George W. Bush’s premature declaration of victory in a 2003 speech aboard the flight deck of the USS Lincoln.

A perfectly executed strike last night. Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military. Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 14, 2018

“A perfectly executed strike last night. Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military,” Trump wrote. “Could not have had a better result.”

In his speech, he said that the US and its allies would respond to Assad’s “atrocities” through an integrated approach– using their combined military, economic and diplomatic power.

“We are prepared to sustain this response until the Syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents,” the president said. “I also have a message tonight for the two governments most responsible for supporting, equipping, and financing the criminal Assad regime.

“To Iran, and to Russia,” he continued, “I ask: What kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women, and children?  The nations of the world can be judged by the friends they keep. No nation can succeed in the long run by promoting rogue states, brutal tyrants, and murderous dictators.”

Just weeks ago, Trump surprised Mideast allies and his national security staff by announcing his intention to withdraw US troops from Syria— deployed to fight Islamic State militants, but widely seen as a buffer to Iranian and Russian presences there.

He doubled down on that position in his remarks: “Under no circumstances” will the US remain in Syria indefinitely, he said. “We cannot purge the world of evil, or act everywhere there is tyranny.”

The language suggests that Trump remains hesitant to engage militarily in the war-torn country, and in the wider region, which he called a “troubled place.”

But at the same time, he added, the US will not allow the “ghastly specter” of chemical weapons use to return for the first time since its international banning in the aftermath of World War I.

As the attack unfolded, Moscow claimed that 71 out of 103 missiles were intercepted by Russian-made Syrian air defenses. But US defense officials said on Saturday that there was “zero” engagement, suggesting there might have been a private de-confliction agreement.

Russia proposed a resolution at the UN Security Council, facing an assured veto, “appalled” at the use of military force against a “sovereign government.”

The Assad regime has been engaged in a civil war against its people that has resulted in 500,000 deaths, over 7,600,000 internally displaced people, and over 5,100,000 refugees– the worst such humanitarian crisis since World War II.