Russia on Friday condemned the U.S. missile strike against Syrian government forces late Thursday, and said it was pulling out of an agreement to minimize the risk of in-flight incidents between U.S. and Russian aircraft operating over Syria. The 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired at a Syrian military air base constituted the first direct American assault against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which Moscow has supported military since 2015. [U.S. strikes Syrian military airfield in first direct assault on Bashar al-Assad’s government]Russian troops are intermingled with Syrian forces on the battlefield and at bases, and any strike on a Syrian military target could also produce Russian military casualties. “So either Russia has been complicit or Russia has been incompetent in its ability to deliver on that agreement,” Tillerson said. A United Nations mission in 2014 confirmed that Assad’s chemical arsenal had been eliminated.

Source: Washington Post April 07, 2017 06:41 UTC