In the quiet streets of Khan Sheikun, people mourned the dead from a sarin attack, bracing for the next raid. The missiles were meant “to degrade” Assad’s ability to conduct chemical weapons attacks, Trump wrote, and “to dissuade the Syrian regime from using or proliferating chemical weapons”. “Congratulations to our great military men and women for representing the United States, and the world, so well in the Syria attack,” he wrote on Twitter. Just prior to the chemical attack, Trump’s top diplomats were describing Assad’s continued rule as “political reality”. Lavrov and other Russian officials have said the US strike was unjustified and that the US has not shown evidence of Assad’s culpability, despite his past use of chemical weapons.

Source: The Guardian April 08, 2017 17:30 UTC