Israel Blamed For Missile Strike On Syrian Airfield

RFL/RE – Syria and its ally Russia have accused Israel of staging an overnight missile strike on a Syrian military air base, as tension rises amid international outrage over a suspected chemical attack that left dozens of people dead in the rebel-held town of Douma outside Damascus.

Syrian state media earlier said several people were killed or injured in the strike on the Tayfur base, also known as T4, near the central city of Homs in the early hours of April 9. Israel, which has previously hit targets in Syria, did not immediately comment.

A Britain-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said at least 14 pro-government fighters were killed in the strike, including allied Iranian forces.

The strike followed allegations of an April 7 chlorine-gas attack by Syrian government forces on Douma, a rebel-held town in the eastern Ghouta region, near Damascus. At least 40 people were killed, several of them children, opposition activists and local rescue workers said.

Syria and its key allies, Russia and Iran, rejected the reports as a “fabrication.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the allegations a “provocation,” and said that said the strike on the Syrian air base was a “very dangerous development.”

“I hope at least that the U.S. military and those of the countries participating in the coalition led by the United States understand that,” Lavrov said at a press conference with his Tajik counterpart in Moscow.

U.S. President Donald Trump and his French counterpart said they would coordinate “a strong, joint response” to the “horrific” attack. Germany said those behind the “abhorrent” attack should be held responsible, pointing to the Damascus government.

Speaking with his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, on the phone, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson “underlined the urgent need to investigate what had happened in Douma and to ensure a strong and robust international response,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.

Lavrov said that Russian military specialists “did not find any trace of chlorine or any other chemical substance used against civilians” on the site.

The global chemical-weapons watchdog said a fact-finding mission was collecting information on the latest reported attack.

Air Strike

The Russian Defense Ministry said on April 9 that two Israeli warplanes carried out the strikes on T4 from Lebanese air space.

It said that Syrian air-defense systems shot down five of eight missiles fired, and that no Russian military advisers were hurt.

“The Israeli attack on the T4 airport was carried out with F-15 aircraft that fired several missiles from above Lebanese territory,” Syria’s state news agency SANA reported.

Asked about the claims, an Israeli military spokesman said he had no immediate comment.

Israel has carried out air strikes on Syrian military sites and bases of Iranian-backed militias in Syria in the past.

SANA initially said the attack on the Tayfur base was a “suspected U.S. attack” and that Syria’s air defenses had shot down eight missiles. The news agency later withdrew any mention of U.S. involvement.

The Pentagon issued a statement saying that “at this time, the Department of Defense is not conducting air strikes in Syria.”

“However, we continue to closely watch the situation and support the ongoing diplomatic efforts to hold those who use chemical weapons, in Syria and otherwise, accountable,” it added.

In April 2017, the U.S. military fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Syria’s Shayrat airfield in response to a sarin gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun. Syria denied it was responsible for the attack, which left at least 80 people dead.

A spokesman for the French military, Patrik Steiger, also said it did not carry out the air strike on the Syrian government air base.

‘Horrific Attack’

Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone and vowed a “strong, joint response” to the “horrific” attack, the White House said on April 8.

The two presidents agreed that the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “must be held accountable for its continued human rights abuses.”

And on April 9, the French presidency said that Macron and Trump “exchanged their information and analysis confirming the use of chemical weapons.”

A statement also said the two leaders had instructed their teams to deepen exchanges in the coming days and coordinate their efforts at an emergency session of the UN Security Council later in the day.

“All responsibilities in this area must be clearly established,” it added.

France has repeatedly warned that evidence of further use of chemical weapons in Syria was a “red line” that would prompt French military strikes.

“The use of chemical weapons is a war crime,” French Foreign Minister Le Drian said in an April 8 statement, adding that France will “do its duty” if the reported attack on Douma is verified.

In Berlin, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told a news conference that “those responsible for the use of poison gas…must be held to account.”

“With this use of poison gas, the circumstances point to Assad regime’s responsibility,” he added.

Trump on April 8 condemned Russia and President Vladimir Putin, along with Iran, for their support of Assad in the wake of what he described as the “mindless CHEMICAL attack” in Syria that left “many dead, including women and children.”

“President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay,” Trump said on Twitter, calling it an “atrocity” and adding: “Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!”

The U.S. president was to meet with his senior military leadership on April 9, the same day his new national security adviser, John Bolton, assumes his post. Bolton has previously advocated air strikes in Syria.

The offensive by Syrian forces and their allies in eastern Ghouta, which involved weeks of intense bombardment, has left more than 1,600 civilians dead and thousands more wounded in eastern Ghouta since February 18, according to the monitor group.

Moscow and Tehran have given crucial military and diplomatic backing to President Bashar al-Assad’s government throughout Syria’s seven-year war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.

With reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, and dpa