US President Donald Trump ordered a massive military strike against Syria on Thursday. A Syrian official says a U.S. missile strike on an airbase in the country's centre has killed seven people.
Nine civilians, including four children, were killed in the US missile attack on a military airbase and the nearby villages in the southeastern countryside of Homs province, Syrian state-run news agency SANA reported.
Civil sources told SANA that two missiles used in the US attack that hit al-Shairat airbase in the central region killed five civilians, including three children, in addition to causing huge material damage to the houses. Another US missile fell in al-Hamrat village, killing four civilians, including a child. Moreover, seven civilians were injured as a missile struck houses in al-Manzoul village, 4 km away from al-Shairat airbase.
The United States of America committed a blatant act of aggression targeting one of the Syrian air bases in the central region with a number of missiles, leaving 6 people martyred and a number of others injured and causing huge material damage.
The United States launched 59 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAMs) at multiple targets at al-Shairat Airfield in Homs province, Syria, US Department of Defense Spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said in a statement. "A total of 59 TLAMs targeted aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage, ammunition supply bunkers, air defence systems, and radars," Davis stated on Thursday.
The missiles were blasted from the USS Porter and the USS Ross, which belong to the US Navy's Sixth Fleet and are located in the eastern Mediterranean. A US official said the missiles targeted aircraft and runways at the base.
"This site was associated with the Syrian regime's chemical weapons program and directly linked to the horrific chemical weapons attack April 4th. We assess with a high degree of confidence that the chemical weapons attack earlier this week was launched from this site by air assets under the command of the Assad regime," the official added.
President Trump’s attack comes despite Congress never giving him the authorization to use military force against Syria.
Talal Barazi, the governor of the province of Homs where the base is based, says the Friday dawn attack has also wounded nine. Initial reports said six were killed. The attack also caused extensive damage to the airbase. U.S. missile strikes on Syrian military positions serve the goals of armed terrorist groups and Islamic State, the governor of Syria's Homs province said on Friday.
The Syrian military called the attack a blatant aggression that would undermine its war on terror.
Presidency of Syrian Arab Republic affirmed on Friday that the US aggression on the airbase in the countryside of Homs is a reckless and irresponsible act that only reflects a short-sightedness, a narrow horizon, and a political and military blindness.
In a statement, the Presidency said: "In an unjust and arrogant aggression, the United States targeted at down on Friday the airport of al-Shairat in the countryside of Homs."
"Targeting an airport of a sovereign state by the US is an outrageous act that clarifies inconclusive evidence once again what Syria has been saying that the succession of administrations of this regime does not change the deep policies of its entity which is represented by targeting states, subjugating peoples and the attempt to dominate the world, ” the presidential statement added.
