American warships stationed off the Syrian coastline fired a salvo of cruise missiles against a Syrian military base in the western part of the country, days after a regime chemical strike left nearly 100 civilians wounded or dead.
Roughly 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired as part of the attack early Friday morning, U.S. officials said. The strikes were centered on the al Shayrat airfield near the western Syrian city of Homs, located in the Alawite-dominated region of the country.
The airfield was one of the locations suspected of housing portions of the chemical weapons stockpiles used during Tuesday’s attack near Idlib province, a known stronghold for rebel forces battling to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.
Pressure had been mounting on the Trump administration to take retaliatory action against the Assad regime since Tuesday’s attack. Syrian forces were required to dismantle all chemical weapons stockpiles as part of Russian-brokered peace deal between Washington and Damascus in 2014.
The situation reached a tipping point Thursday, as President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson suggested the White House was weighing military action against Mr. Assad. The U.S. strikes in Homs is the first major military action taken by the Trump administration.
“There is no doubt in our minds and the information we have supports that,” Mr. Tillerson said hours before President Trump and Defense Secretary James Mattis were scheduled to review options for a potential U.S. military retaliation against Syria.
Earlier on Thursday, Mr. Trump raised eyebrows by suggesting “something should happen” to punish the Syrian president, Mr. Tillerson went further — suggesting the administration has reversed its position on whether Mr. Assad can remain in power and calling on Russia to back away from him.
“It is very important that the Russian government consider carefully their continued support for the Assad regime,” Mr. Tillerson told reporters gathered at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he and Mr. Trump began a two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.
• Guy Taylor contributed to this report
A pair of defense hawks -- Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham -- who have frequently been critical of Trump, roundly praised the President's decision Thursday night.
"Acting on the orders of their commander-in-chief, they have sent an important message the United States will no longer stand idly by as Assad, aided and abetted by Putin's Russia, slaughters innocent Syrians with chemical weapons and barrel bombs," McCain and Graham said in a joint statement.
Sen. Rand Paul called on Trump to consult on Congress. "While we all condemn the atrocities in Syria, the US was not attacked," Paul said.
Watch CNN as this story unfolds.
How will the world respond?
Anti-Assad Syrians praise Trump's airstrikes
Anti-Assad Syrians praise Trump's airstrikes
This is what they are saying...
