Syria strikes - as it happened: Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons capability 'set back for years' by bombing, Pentagon says
Theresa May warns of further strikes if regime uses poison again
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Your support makes all the difference.Joint air strikes by the US, UK and France have set back Syria’s chemical weapons capability “for years”, the US military said.
Cruise missiles were fired at three sites in response to what Theresa May called the “despicable and barbaric” attack in Douma last week that is believed to have killed up to 75 people.
Ms May said Bashar al-Assad could face even further strikes if chemical weapons are used again - and the US warned that they were "locked and loaded" if poison used again.
US President Donald Trump declared “mission accomplished” after more than 100 missiles were collectively launched in the early hours of the morning.
During telephone conversations on Saturday afternoon, Ms May, Mr Trump and Emmanuel Macron all agreed that the military strikes in Syria "had been a success".
Downing Street published a document setting out why it believes military action against the Syrian regime was legal after Jeremy Corbyn described the action as legally questionable.
The Russian embassy in the US said it had warned that such actions would "not be left without consequences", adding that insulting President Vladimir Putin was "unacceptable and inadmissible".
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Russia and Syria claimed most of the missiles, numbering about 110, were intercepted, while the Pentagon said Syrian defences had “no effect” on the operation.
Mr Assad, backed also by Iran, said on Saturday the bombings would increase his country’s resolve to “fight and crush terrorism”.
Ms May said she had authorised British forces to conduct precision strikes against Syria to help degrade its chemical weapons capability.
“This is not about intervening in a civil war. It is not about regime change,” Ms May said in a statement. “It is about a limited and targeted strike that does not further escalate tensions in the region and that does everything possible to prevent civilian casualties.”
RAF Tornado jets bombed a chemical weapons facility 15 miles outside Homs, the Ministry of Defence said.
Russia warned of “consequences” for the US-led military strikes, saying the use of missiles on suspected chemical weapons assets were an insult to Vladimir Putin.
“A pre-designed scenario is being implemented,” Russian ambassador Anatoly Antonov said in a statement. “Again, we are being threatened. We warned that such actions will not be left without consequences.”
Earlier, Russia’s military claimed to have evidence that Britain had “direct involvement” in staging the suspected chemical attack in Syria, a charge quickly condemned as “grotesque” by the UK.
Humanitarian volunteers were “seriously pressured” by the UK to speed up plans for a “provocation” in eastern Ghouta, Moscow’s defence ministry suggested.
Britain’s ambassador to the UN condemned the “blatant lie” as “the worst piece of fake news we’ve yet seen from the Russian propaganda machine”.
Later, a spokesman for the UK Foreign Office said: “These accusations from Moscow are just the latest in a number of ludicrous allegations from Russia, who have also said that no attack ever happened.
“This simply shows their desperation to pin the blame on anyone but their client: the [President Bashar] Assad regime
It comes as Russia and the United States traded fresh blows during the latest round of talks at the UN Security Council and amid warnings that the world is at risk of “full-blown military escalation”.
The State Department said the United States has proof at “a very high level of confidence” that the Syrian government of Mr Assad carried out the attack but is still working to identify the mix of chemicals used.
“Syria is responsible. We are all in agreement,” department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters.
Additional reporting by agencies
US-led strikes in Syria are an "important signal" to Iran, Syria and and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a senior Israeli cabinet minister has said.
"The use of chemical weapons crosses a red line that humanity can no longer tolerate," Yoav Gallant, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet, wrote on Twitter.
Further details have emerged about the claimed interception of Western missiles over Syria during last night's bombing.
Russia's defence ministry said the majority of the reported 100-plus missiles were intercepted by Syrian government air defences, according to the TASS news agency.
Interfax reported the ministry as saying Russian systems were not involved in intercepting the missiles.
The US, France and the UK fired 110 missiles at three targets inside Syria, the country's military said.
Brigadier General Ali Mayhoub, who read a statement on Syrian TV, said "our air defenses effectively shot down most of them".
One of the missiles hit the Scientific Research Center in Barzeh near Damascus, damaging a building, he said. In Homs, one of the missiles was derailed and injured three people, he added.
Gen Mayhoub said the attacks "will not deter" the Syrian military from its ongoing war to eradicate "armed terrorists" from Syrian territory.
Russia's defence ministry said that all 12 cruise missiles launched at the Dumayr air base, east of Damascus, were intercepted by Syria's own Soviet-built air defences.
Gavin Williamson, the UK defence secretary, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the air strikes were "highly successful".
The UK's part in the strikes saw RAF Tornado jets launch Storm Shadow missiles at what the Ministry of Defence described as a regime chemical weapons facility, 15 miles west of Homs.
The decision to bomb targets in Syria was taken in the "last few days", Gavin Williamson has said.
The UK defence secretary said the UK, US and France had decided to act because "we all saw the images last week of the suffering that had been inflicted on innocent men, women and children" in the alleged chemical attack in Douma.
He said four Tornado jets had launched Storm Shadow cruise missiles in the UK portion of the strike, adding that all crews returned safely.
"Every early indication is that it has been a highly successful mission," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"Our service personnel have played an important role in terms of degrading the ability of the Syrian regime to use chemical weapons in the future.
"We expect it to have a significant effect in stopping the Syrian regime using chemical weapons."
Mr Williamson acknowledged that Bashar al-Assad's convention capability would remain despite the strikes, and said a "political solution" was needed.
Asked about whether the bombing would be a sustained campaign, as Donald Trump said, or a "one-time shot" as US defence secretary James Mattis announced, Mr Williamson said: "Just last night before the strikes occurred I was talking with the US defence secretary and the French defence secretary as well, and we have been working incredibly closely to make sure that the targetting and the strikes that we have undertaken have enormous effect.
"It's our belief that the action we've undertaken has degraded their ability to act in the future, and very much the decision is in the Syrian regime's hands."
Downing Street is to hold a press conference at 9am when more details are expected about last night's air strikes.
Jeremy Corbyn has called the military action against Syria "legally questionable" and said Theresa May should have sought parliament's approval for the strikes.
The bombing made real accountability for war crimes less likely, the Labour leader said, adding he believed Britain should not be taking instructions from Washington DC or putting military personnel in danger.
He said: "Bombs won't save lives or bring about peace.
"This legally questionable action risks escalating further, as US defence secretary James Mattis has admitted, an already devastating conflict and therefore makes real accountability for war crimes and use of chemical weapons less, not more likely.
"Britain should be playing a leadership role to bring about a ceasefire in the conflict, not taking instructions from Washington and putting British military personnel in harm's way.
"Theresa May should have sought parliamentary approval, not trailed after Donald Trump.
"The government should do whatever possible to push Russia and the United States to agree to an independent UN-led investigation of last weekend's horrific chemical weapons attack so that those responsible can be held to account."
Theresa May has said the assessment of the bombing's effectiveness is "ongoing", but that "we are confident of its success".
The Prime Minister said "reliable intelligence indicates that Syrian military officials coordinated the use of chlorine in Douma on 7 April", adding that the UK believed a barrel bomb was used to deliver the poison.
A helicopter was seen over the city on that day, she said, and added that "the opposition does not operate helicopters, or use barrel bombs".
Ms May said the UK believed Syria "continues to retain undeclared stocks of nerve agent, or precursor chemicals, and it is likely to be continuing with some chemical weapons production".
Meanwhile, Russia continued to block attempts to hold Syria to account, she said, including with its recent UN Security Council veto of an independent investigation into the Douma attack.
Ms May said the UK's military followed "harrowing images" of the "despicable and barbaric" attack in Douma.
"All the indications are that this was a chemical weapons attack."
Up to 75 people died in the attack, she said, with "as many as 500 further casualties".
In response to a question from The Independent's Joe Watts on whether the latest strikes might prompt an increase in the already huge displacement of Syrians, and what planning had been done to help them, Ms May said: "Over the last few years, seven years or so, we have seen a large number of people displaced within Syria and obviously a large number of refugees from Syria being displaced both to countries in the region and further afield.
"We have been receiving a number of Syrian refugees here in the UK. Our focus has always been on support for refugees in the region and support for countries that have been providing refuge for them.
"Obviously the Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey are the three countries that have particularly been providing a refuge.
"The purpose of this action is to prevent further humanitarian suffering. Nobody can have been anything but appalled at the scenes that we saw and we read about in the attack that took place in Douma."
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