US, allies launch strikes on Syrian chemical weapon strikes

The strikes have been approved by the US in response to alleged chemical attacks in Syrian town of Douma last week.

"I ordered the United States armed forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with the chemical weapon capabilities of Syrian dictator of Bashar al-Assad,"  the US President was quoted as saying by CNN.

"The combined American, British and French response to these atrocities will integrate all instruments of our national power: military, economic and diplomatic," he said.

British PM Theresa May has also confirmed her country's involvement in the matter.

In a statement, she said: "This evening I have authorised British armed forces to conduct co-ordinated and targeted strikes to degrade the Syrian Regime’s chemical weapons capability and deter their use."

"We are acting together with our American and French allies," she said.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday again called for the creation of an independent panel that could determine who used chemical weapons in Syria, as the absence of such a body increases the risks of a military escalation in a country already riven by “confrontations and proxy wars.”

“Syria indeed today represents the most serious threat to international peace and security,” the Secretary-General said in a briefing to the Security Council.

“In Syria, we see confrontations and proxy wars involving several national armies, a number of armed opposition groups, many national and international militia, foreign fighters from everywhere in the world, and various terrorist organizations,” he added.

His plea comes after the mandate of the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), which was created as a body to attribute responsibility for the use of chemical weapons in Syria in 2015, expired in November 2017.

Due largely to divisions among its five permanent members ­– China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States – the Council could not adopt three draft resolutions that would have responded to a suspected chemical weapons attack in the Syrian town of Douma.

Guterres, in a letter to the Council two days ago, he expressed his “deep disappointment” at the failure of establishing an accountability mechanism similar to JIM.

A least 70 people were killed in alleged chemical strikes in Douma last week.

Syrian government has denied conducting any strike in Douma.

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