Joint Air Strikes on Syria designed for maximum impact - US

The chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joe Dunford, has said the joint air strikes would directly affect the regime's chemical weapons' capability.

"They will lose years of research and development data, specialised equipment and expensive chemical weapons precursors.

"The strike was not only a strong message to the regime that their actions were inexcusable, but it also inflicted maximum damage without unnecessary risk to innocent civilians."

President Bashar al-Assad's government has repeatedly denied ever using chemical weapons and accused rebels of "fabricating" the incident in Douma last Saturday.

The government insists its entire chemical arsenal was destroyed under a deal brokered by the US and Russia after an attack in August 2013. Then, rockets filled with the nerve agent Sarin were fired at several opposition-controlled suburbs of Damascus, killing hundreds of people.

However, experts from the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have ascribed four confirmed chemical attacks to the government since then, including one on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in April 2017, that also involved Sarin and left 80 people dead.

BBC News
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