Pressure builds on Syria's Assad; US launches missiles
FILE - In this June 7, 2016 file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, addresses a speech to the newly-elected parliament at the parliament building, in Damascus, Syria. Assad’s government came under mounting international pressure Thursday, April 6, 2017 after a chemical attack in northern Syria, with even key ally Russia saying its support is not unconditional. (SANA via AP)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, speaks during a press conference, Thursday, April 6, 2017, in Damascus, Syria. Moallem told reporters Thursday that it didn’t use chemical weapons in Tuesday’s deadly chemical weapons attack in Syria’s northern Idlib province, and he blamed the rebels for stockpiling the deadly substance. Moallem said any investigative mission would need to take off from Damascus and be far from the sphere of Turkish influence. (SANA via AP)
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov speaks with The Associated Press in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 6, 2017. Peskov tells The Associated Press that Russia’s support for Syrian President Bashar Assad is not unconditional, with Putin’s Spokesman talking just days after a suspected chemical weapons attack on a Syrian rebel-held province.(AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)
FILE -- This Tuesday April 4, 2017, file photo, provided by the Syrian anti-government activist group Edlib Media Center, that is consistent with independent AP reporting, shows a man carrying a child following a suspected chemical attack, at a makeshift hospital in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, northern Idlib province, Syria. Walid Moallem, Syria’s Foreign Minister, told reporters Thursday, April 6, 2017, that it didn’t use chemical weapons in Tuesday’s attack, and he blamed the rebels for stockpiling the deadly substance. (Edlib Media Center, via AP, File)
In this photo taken on Tuesday, April 4, 2017 and made available Wednesday, April 5, Turkish experts evacuate a victim of alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syrian city of Idlib, at a local hospital in Reyhanli, Hatay, Turkey. A suspected chemical attack in a town in Syria’s rebel-held northern Idlib province killed dozens of people on Tuesday, opposition activists said, describing the attack as among the worst in the country’s six-year civil war. (DHA-Depo Photos via AP)
Britain’s United Nations Ambassador Matthew Rycroft speaks during a meeting of the Security Council on Syria at U.N. headquarters, Wednesday, April 5, 2017. Rycroft said the attack in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province “bears all the hallmarks” of President Bashar Assad’s regime and the Britain believes a nerve agent capable of killing over a hundred people was used. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Russia’s deputy United Nations ambassador Vladimir Safronkov listens during a meeting of the Security Council on Syria at U.N. headquarters, Wednesday, April 5, 2017. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
In this photo taken on Tuesday, April 4, 2017 and made available Wednesday, April 5, Turkish experts enter Syria to evacuate a victim of alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syrian city of Idlib, at a local hospital in Reyhanli, Hatay, Turkey. A suspected chemical attack in a town in Syria’s rebel-held northern Idlib province killed dozens of people on Tuesday, opposition activists said, describing the attack as among the worst in the country’s six-year civil war.(DHA-Depo Photos via AP)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, speaks during a press conference, in Damascus, Syria, Thursday, April 6, 2017. Moallem told reporters Thursday that it didn’t use chemical weapons in Tuesday’s deadly chemical weapons attack in Syria’s northern Idlib province, and he blamed the rebels for stockpiling the deadly substance. Moallem said any investigative mission would need to take off from Damascus and be far from the sphere of Turkish influence. (SANA via AP)
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, center, speaks with Ian Phillips, vice president International News Associated Press, at a meeting with The Associated Press in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 6, 2017. The spokesman for President Vladimir Putin tells The Associated Press Russia’s support for Syrian President Bashar Assad is not unconditional. Thursday’s statement from Dmitry Peskov comes several days after a suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held province. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, right, speaks with Ian Phillips, vice president International News Associated Press, during a meeting with The Associated Press in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 6, 2017. Peskov told The Associated Press that Russia’s support for Syrian President Bashar Assad is not unconditional, with Putin’s Spokesman talking just days after a suspected chemical weapons attack on a Syrian rebel-held province.(AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)
In this photo taken on late Wednesday, April 5, 2017 and made available Thursday, April 6, World Health Organization experts work as they take part in an autopsy conducted in a hospital in Adana, Turkey. Turkey’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said autopsy results show Syrians were subjected to chemical weapons attack in Idlib, Syria, on Tuesday. (DHA-Depo Photos via AP)
In this photo taken on late Wednesday, April 5, 2017 and made available Thursday, April 6, World Health Organization experts work as they take part in an autopsy conducted in a hospital in Adana, Turkey. Turkey’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said autopsy results show Syrians were subjected to chemical weapons attack in Idlib, Syria, on Tuesday. (DHA-Depo Photos via AP)
BEIRUT (AP) — President Bashar Assad’s government came under mounting international pressure after a chemical attack in northern Syria, with even key ally Russia saying its support is not unconditional and the U.S. launching a barrage of cruise missiles at a government-controlled air base in Syria.
Turkey, meanwhile, said samples from victims of Tuesday’s attack, which killed more than 80 people in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, indicate they were exposed to sarin, a highly toxic nerve agent.
Syria rejected the accusations, and Moscow warned against apportioning blame until an investigation has been carried out.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday that “unconditional support is not possible in this current world.”
But he added that “it is not correct to say that Moscow can convince Mr. Assad to do whatever is wanted in Moscow. This is totally wrong.”
Russia has provided military support for the Syrian government since September 2015, turning the balance of power in Assad’s favor. Moscow has used its veto power at the Security Council on several occasions since the civil war began six years ago to prevent sanctions against Damascus.
The two countries “enjoy a relationship of cooperation, of exchange of views and full mutual support,” said Peskov, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin. Assad and his army are “the only real power in Syria that can resist terrorists on the ground,” he said.
Syria maintains it didn’t use chemical weapons, blaming opposition fighters for stockpiling the chemicals. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the toxic agents were released when a Syrian airstrike hit a rebel chemical weapons arsenal and munitions factory on the eastern outskirts of Khan Sheikhoun.
“I stress, once again, that the Syrian Arab Army did not and will not use such weapons even against the terrorists who are targeting our people,” Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Moallem told reporters in Damascus.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the attack crossed “many, many lines,” and put the blame squarely on Assad’s forces. Speaking Thursday on Air Force One, Trump said the attack “shouldn’t have happened, and it shouldn’t be allowed to happen.”
Early Friday morning Syrian time, the United States fired cruise missiles into Syria in a surprise strike that marked a striking reversal for Trump, who warned as a candidate against the U.S. getting pulled into the Syrian civil war, now in its seventh year.
About 60 U.S. Tomahawk missiles, fired from warships in the Mediterranean Sea, targeted an air base in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack that American officials believe Syrian government aircraft launched with a nerve agent, possibly sarin.
Trump called on “all civilized nations” to join the U.S. in seeking an end to the carnage in Syria.
Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said he hopes Trump will take military action, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency quoted him as saying.
Erdogan said Turkey would be prepared to do “whatever falls on us” to support possible military action, the news agency reported.
U.S. officials had said they hoped for a vote late Thursday night on a U.N. Security Council resolution that would condemn the chemical attack, but with council members still negotiating the text into the evening, the British Mission’s political coordinator Stephen Hickey tweeted the vote wouldn’t take place until later.
At the U.N., the United States, which currently holds the presidency of the Security Council, it drafted a resolution along with Britain and France that condemns the use of chemical weapons, particularly in the attack on Khan Sheikhoun, “in the strongest terms.”
Russia objected to key provisions in the resolution and negotiations have been underway to try to bridge the differences.
Britain’s deputy ambassador Peter Wilson said “what we want is a unanimous resolution ... and we want to see this done soon.”
A day earlier, Russia had argued against holding Assad’s government responsible.
France’s U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre indicated difficulty in reaching agreement on a resolution.
“We have engaged into negotiations in good faith to adopt a resolution - but make no mistake about it we need a robust text,” he said. “We cannot be willing to have a text at any cost.”
After the attack, hospitals around Khan Sheikhoun were overwhelmed, and paramedics sent victims to medical facilities across rebel-held areas in northern Syria, as well as to Turkey. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group put the death toll at 86.
The attack happened in Syria’s Idlib province about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Turkish border, and the Turkish government — a close ally of Syria’s rebels — set up a decontamination center at a border crossing in Hatay province, where the victims were treated initially.
Turkish officials said nearly 60 victims of the attack were brought to Turkey for treatment and three of them died.
Victims showed signs of nerve gas exposure, including suffocation, foaming at the mouth, convulsions, constricted pupils and involuntary defecation, the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders said. Paramedics used fire hoses to wash the chemicals from the bodies of victims.
Visuals from the scene were reminiscent of a 2013 nerve gas attack on the suburbs of Damascus that left hundreds dead.
In Turkey, Anadolu and the private DHA news agencies on Thursday quoted Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag as saying “it was determined after the autopsy that a chemical weapon was used.”
The Turkish Health Ministry said later that “according to the results of the first analysis, there were findings suggesting that the patients were exposed to chemical substance (sarin).”
WHO experts took part in the autopsies in the Turkish city of Adana late Wednesday, Turkish media reported.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said it has “initiated contact” with Syrian authorities and its Technical Secretariat has been collecting and analyzing information about the allegations. “This is an ongoing investigation,” it said.
Russia has warned against fixing blame for the attack until an investigation is completed.
At a news conference in Damascus, Moallem echoed that statement, saying the Syrian army bombed a warehouse belonging to al-Qaida’s branch in Syria that contained chemical weapons. He did not say whether the government knew in advance that the warehouse contained chemical weapons.
The minister said al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have been bringing chemical weapons from neighboring Iraq.
Asked whether Syria would give access to a fact-finding mission on the use of chemical weapons, Moallem said: “Our experiences with international investigating committees were not encouraging, because they come out of Damascus with certain indications, which then change at their headquarters.”
Syria wants guarantees that any investigation would be impartial and not politicized, Moallem said.
The area of Khan Sheikhoun is difficult to access, and as more time passes since the attack, it will be increasingly difficult to determine exactly what happened.
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Phillips reported from Moscow. Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.