U.S. Strikes On Syria Are 'Now Underway', Huge Blasts Reported In Damascus

President Trump Orders Strikes On Syria In Retaliation For Chemical Attack

President Donald Trump ordered military strikes on Syria in response to a deadly chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town of Douma.

Trump announced in a Friday night press conference that a combined operation in collaboration with France and the United Kingdom was underway.  

Trump had spoken to both French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May this week about a coordinated response, according to the White House. 

Trump had called the weekend attack, which killed at least 70 people, “sick” and “atrocious,” and said Syria and its allies Russia and Iran would “pay a price.” 

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“If it’s the Russians, if it’s Syria, if it’s Iran, if it’s all of them together, we’ll figure it out,” Trump said on Monday. “We cannot allow atrocities like that. ... Everybody’s going to pay a price.”

Damascus, Moscow and Tehran still deny that the chemical attack was Assad’s doing. U.S. officials say they have intelligence proving a chemical attack did occur and that U.S. and foreign intelligence indicate that the Syrian government was behind the attack. 

Syrian government forces took precautions at military bases throughout the week in anticipation of possible strikes. There were reports that various air bases had been evacuated. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, meanwhile, confirmed Tuesday it was sending a fact-finding mission to investigate the attack in Syria.

Trump: US strikes on Syria, along with UK and France, are 'now underway'

Huge blasts reported in Damascus as president says he is prepared for 'sustained' US response to chemical weapons attack

US President Donald Trump announced late Friday that a joint US-British-French operation had been launched on Syria, targeting the “criminal” regime of Bashar Assad for his alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians and to deter him from doing it again.

Loud explosions lit up the skies over the Syrian capital, as Trump announced the airstrikes.

“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 primetime televised address to the nation.

“A combined operation with the armed forces of France and the United Kingdom is now under way. We thank them both. This massacre was a significant escalation in a pattern of chemical weapons use by that very terrible regime.”

Trump said the US was prepared to “sustain” pressure on Assad until he ends what the president called a criminal pattern of killing his own people with international banned chemical weapons.

Trump said the three nations have “marshaled their righteous power” and asked for a “prayer for our noble warriors.”

He also warned Russia and Iran about their association with Assad’s government.

“To Iran and to Russia, I ask: What kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women and children?”

He called the two countries those “most responsible for supporting, equipping and financing the criminal Assad regime.” He said “The nations of the world can be judged by the friends they keep.”

Several huge explosions were heard in Damascus, correspondent there said. Syrian state television also reported a US attack on Syria, in coordination with France and Britain.

Trump’s position is being encouraged by new hawkish national security adviser John Bolton, who wants a “ruinous” response in Syria, the report said.

Any aggressive US military action in Syria could lead to escalation and broader conflict with Moscow and Tehran, which both have a heavy military presence in the Arab nation.