‘PERFECT’ MISSION
Trump hails raids on military bases in Syria as well as a chemical weapons factory near Damascus
BRITISH jets joined US-led air strikes in Syria yesterday, with Donald Trump defiantly hailing the attack “perfectly executed”.
Four RAF Tornado GR4s were deployed alongside US and French allies to bomb a Syrian chemical weapons factory.
More than 110 cruise missiles from warships, submarines and aircraft were fired at a series of sites across Syria in a 70-minute offensive which began around 1am.
The action was taken against President Assad’s regime in retaliation for a gas attack on April 7.
At least 60 people were killed after “poisonous chlorine gas” was unleashed in Douma, which Russia later claimed Britain had direct involvement in.
Yesterday’s co-ordinated attacks targeted military bases near the capital Damascus and the city of Homs. The US President wrote on Twitter: “Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military. Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!
“So proud of our great military which will soon be, after the spending of billions of fully approved dollars, the finest that our country has ever had. There won’t be anything, or anyone, even close!”
Prime Minister Theresa May said the “limited and targeted strikes” had degraded Syria’s ability to use chemical weapons and sent “a clear message”.
Footage emerged on Syrian TV reportedly showing the bombed-out remains of a chemical lab in Barzah, near the capital.
Mrs May added: “This collective action sends a clear message that the international community will not stand by and tolerate the use of chemical weapons.”
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he had “no reason to doubt” the evidence and said that the decision was “right”.
At a press conference in Brussels, he said: “Compared to the alternative of doing nothing, this was the right thing to do.”
The British Tornado jets were deployed from RAF Akrotiri, the air force base in Cyprus.
They were each armed with two Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which weigh 900lbs each and can travel as far as 250 miles.
The missiles can hug the contours of the land, making them almost impossible to spot on radar. They are said to be accurate enough to destroy a single moving target.
While RAF jets targeted Homs, French and US aircraft and ships launched Tomahawk cruise missiles against other strategic sites inside Syria.
America deployed B-1B Lancer bombers and used double the number of weapons deployed in a 2017 missile strike responding to a previous chemical attack. The French sent Mirage and Rafale fighter jets along with four frigate warships launching 12 cruise missiles.
Syrian state TV claimed 13 missiles fired in US-led attack had been shot down. They also said that three civilians had been wounded in the action.
But an MoD spokesman said the facility was “located some distance from any known concentrations of civilian habitation”.
They also said that scientific analysis was used to “minimise any risks of contamination to the surrounding area”.
Mrs May said she had been left with “no alternative” but to launch the air strikes.
This was despite threats by Russian President Vladimir Putin that any action would have consequences. She linked the gas attacks by the Assad regime to the recent use of a nerve agent on the streets of Salisbury as she insisted the strikes were in the British national interest. RAF Akrotiri has been used by the British military since the 1950s – including in 2015, when David Cameron ordered Typhoons and Tornado jets to be dispatched on a combat mission to Syria and Iraq to take on Isis fighters.