Saturday, April 14, 2018

Mattis: Syria Strikes a 'One-Time Shot,' Further Operations Will Depend on Assad

"That will depend on Mr. Assad," Mattis said at a Pentagon briefing Friday night, when asked whether there would be more military operations, following U.S., French, and British strikes against Syrian chemical weapons facilities.

Briefing alongside Mattis, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford said Friday night's strikes differed from those Trump ordered a year ago, after the Syrian regime conducted a chemical weapons attack in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun.

While last year's strikes were done unilaterally, and hit one target - a Syrian regime airfield that housed about 17 percent of its air force - Dunford said Friday's strikes were conducted with two allies on multiple sites and would "Result in a long-term degradation of Syria's capability to develop chemical weapons."

He said the strikes - from U.S. ships and Air Force bombers - destroyed three targets that were specifically associated with the Syrian regime's chemical weapons program.

The first target was a military scientific research center in the greater Damascus area - used for research, development, production and testing of chemical and biological weapons, he said.

The second target was a chemical weapons storage facility west of Homs that U.S. and allied officials assessed was the "Primary location" of sarin production.

At the same time, he said, the U.S. had no intention to expand the strike further than chemical weapons-type targets.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/04/13/mattis-syria-strikes-a-one-time-shot-further-operations-will-depend-on-assad/amp/

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