President Emmanuel Macron confirmed early Saturday that France has joined with the US and UK in military strikes launched overnight Friday on sites described as chemical weapons plants in Syria managed by the Damascus regime of President Bashir al-Assad, in response to a suspected chemical attack on the rebel-held Syrian town of Douma on April 7th.
US President Donald Trump, speaking from The White House in a televised address late Friday local time in Washington, announced the launch of the offensive, adding that the US and its allies would “sustain this response until the Syrian regime stops its use of chemical weapons”.
"A combined operation with the armed forces of France and the United Kingdom is now underway," he said, adding, "we thank them both", and that the targets were “associated with the chemical weapons capabilities" of the Syrian government.
"These are not the actions of a man, they are the crimes of a monster instead," he said of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Soon after, the French presidential office, the Elysée Palace, released a statement by President Emmanuel Macron, who said: “On Saturday April 7th 2018 in Douma, dozens of men, women and children were massacred by chemical weapons. The red line was crossed. The facts and the responsibility of the Syrian regime [in the perpetration of chemical weapon attacks] leave no doubt. I therefore ordered the French armed forces to intervene tonight, in the framework of an international operation led in coalition with the United States and the United Kingdom and led against the clandestine chemical arsenal of the Syrian regime.”
“Our response was limited to the capacities of the Syrian regime that allow for the production and use of chemical weapons.”
Soon after Trump’s announcement, explosions were reported around the Syrian capital Damascus, while Britain’s defence ministry said RAF Tornado aircraft had hit chemical weapons sites near the city of Homs.
The Elysée posted a video on Twitter shortly before 4am local time showing French fighter aircraft taking off from an unspecified location, captioned, “French armed forces intervening against the clandestine chemical arsenal of the Syrian regime”, which was signed off as a “Statement by the French president”.
Correspondents in Damascus from the news agencies AFP and Reuters reported overflights of the Syrian capital by unidentified aircraft, and witnesses reported a number of explosions heard around the city.
Reports by a Damascus regime television channel reported an “American aggression” in Syria “in cooperation with France and Great Britain”.
Reuters news agency cited a US official as saying a number of Tomahawk cruise missiles had been used against targets in Syria.
Shortly after 4am CET, the Pentagon announced that the first wave of attacks had ended.
The US president said the purpose was "to establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread and use of chemical weapons".
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said strikes had hit the Syrian Scientific Research Facility in Damascus, along with several military sites.