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Senior U.S. military officials said Friday that they were looking into
whether Russia aided Syrian forces in this week's deadly chemical attack on
civilians in Idlib province. "We think we have a good picture of who
supported them as well," one senior military official told reporters at
the Pentagon, adding that the Pentagon was "carefully assessing any
information that would implicate the Russians knew or assisted with this Syrian
capability."
The officials said that at a minimum, the Russians failed to rein in the
Syrian regime activity that has killed innocent Syrian civilians. They said
Russia also failed to fulfill its 2013 guarantee that Syria's chemical weapons
would be eliminated. The U.S. military officials noted that they had not seen
evidence of Russian involvement in the chemical attack. However, the officials
said the Russians had an aviation unit based at the airfield where the attack
originated and have "chemical expertise in country."
U.S. military officials have shown reporters the Syrian aircraft flight
path that was taken April 4 from al-Shayrat airfield to the town of Khan
Sheikhoun, where more than 80 people were killed in the attack that local
doctors said involved sarin nerve gas. U.S. military officials said Friday that
after the attack, they watched a small drone, also called a UAV, flying over
the hospital in Khan Sheikoun where victims of the chemical attack were being
treated.
"About five hours later, the UAV returned, and the hospital was
struck by additional munitions," one official said. The senior military
official said the U.S. did not know why the hospital was struck or who carried
out the strike, but had determined that it was potentially done "to hide
the evidence of a chemical attack."
U.S.-Russia communication
Meanwhile, senior military officials said the United States and Russia
would maintain a line of communication aimed at preventing midair collisions of
their warplanes in Syrian airspace. That contradicted Moscow's earlier assertion
that it had suspended those communications in protest against the Tomahawk
cruise missile strike on al-Shayrat airfield.
The communication line is primarily used to ensure that Russian and U.S.
planes conducting combat missions in Syria do not get into unintentional
confrontations. The U.S. is using the airspace to conduct strikes against
Islamic State terrorists. The U.S. used the line to inform the Russians of the
intent to strike in order to warn any Russians who were at the base, officials
said.
Friday's U.S. strike used 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles to hit targets on
the Syrian airfield, including about 20 aircraft, aircraft storage facilities,
ammunition supply bunkers and radars, officials said. A U.S. military official
told VOA there was an area on the airfield known to have been used as a
chemical weapons depot. The source said that the U.S. military did not know
whether chemical weapons were still in that area, but out of an abundance of
caution to avoid potential casualties, the missiles did not strike that area.
Other U.S. military officials told VOA the strikes did not target the airfield
runways so as to not threaten Russians, adding that the Tomahawk type used was
for "precision strikes, not cratering."
One military official deemed the strikes as "appropriate,
proportionate, precise and effective." The office of Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad described the strikes in a statement Friday as
"reckless" and "irresponsible." The statement added that
the attacks were "shortsighted" and a continuation of a U.S. policy
of "subjugating people."
Russia, which is providing troops and air support to the Assad
government, condemned the U.S. military action, calling it "aggression
against a sovereign state," and said it was suspending a memorandum of understanding
with the U.S. for flight safety over Syria. U.S. Ambassador to the United
Nations Nikki Haley said Friday that the United States "took a very
measured step last night." She added, "We are prepared to do more,
but we hope that will not be necessary."
VOA's Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.