Syrian Fighter Jets Restart Combat Flights over Terrorists’ Centers from Shayrat Airbase in Homs

SOHR said that the army aircraft have taken off again from Shayrat airbase and targeted terrorists’ positions only one day after the US warships targeted the airport by a number of cruise missiles.

In the meantime, Reuters reported that two warplanes left Shayrat airbase and bombed terrorists’ concentration centers in Palmyra (Tadmur) countryside only hours after the missile strike.

Syrian activists told Reuters that the volume of the losses inflicted by the US missile attack on the airport is not clear but restart of flights from the airport shows that the Syrian fighter jets have done an impossible move.

On Friday, the Syrian Armed Forces’ General Command deplored US missile attack on Shayrat military airport in Southwestern Homs, adding the move made clearer that the US is a partner of ISIL and Al-Nusra Front (also known as Fatah al-Sham Front or the Levant Liberation Board) terrorists in the war-hit country.

The General Command, in a statement, condemned US navy’s missile attack on Shayrat airbase, adding the violation could send a mistaken message to the terrorist group that whenever they suffer defeats in the battlefield they were allowed to use chemical weapons.

“The US did an open aggression against Syria at 3:42 early morning and targeted one of our airbase in the region with a number of cruise missile, leaving six dead and several more injured and inflicting major damage on properties,” the general command said.

The attack, the statement added, made the United States of America as a “partner” of ISIL, Al-Nusra and other terrorist organizations that sought since day one of the unfair war on Syria to attack points of the Syrian army and the Syrian military bases.

The statement went on to say that the US’s attempt to justify this aggression by saying that it is in response to the Syrian army’s use of chemical weapons in Khan Sheikhoun town in Idlib without yet determining the reality of and the perpetrators behind what happened there “sends wrong messages to the terrorist organizations that would embolden them further to use chemical weapons in the future every time they suffer heavy losses in the battlefield.

This act of aggression, the Command stressed, violates all international laws and conventions and aims at affecting the capabilities of the Syrian army in its fight against terrorism.

The Command affirmed that its response to the US aggression is dogged determination to continue its national duty of defending the Syrian people and beating terrorism wherever it is and restoring security and stability to the entire territories of Syria.

Local officials confirmed earlier today that several civilians have been killed and several more have been wounded in the US raid on a Syrian airfield in Homs province.

Governor of Homs province Talal Barazi told reporters that the US strike on a Syrian airfield has led to civilian casualties in a village near the base, as well as the airbase itself, adding at least five people have been killed and seven wounded.

Two civilians and three military personnel were killed in the strike, AP reported, citing the governor.

The American missile attack on Syria won’t topple its government or change the policies of Damascus, he said after a barrage of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles targeted a Syrian airfield.

“The Syrian leadership and Syrian policy will not change,” Barazi said in a phone interview with Syrian state television. “This targeting was not the first and I don’t believe it will be the last.”

He added that Shayrat airbase will be rebuilt and continue to play a role in fighting terrorists.

Earlier, Barazi told Reuters that firefighting and rescue operations were under way at the Shayrat airfield after the US attack, but he believed that there were not many casualties on the ground.

Barazi said Washington’s escalation of the conflict in Syria only served terrorist groups such as ISIL.

The governor said that the base played a significant role in the recent capture of the city of Palmyra from ISIL.

The Syrian state TV called the attack “American aggression”.

On Friday, US warships in the Eastern Mediterranean fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at the Syrian airfield, with Pentagon claiming that it was used in a chemical weapons attack against a rebel-held town in Idlib province on Tuesday.

The retaliation came before the UN or the OPCW, the chemical weapons watchdog, could investigate the incident. Washington sided with the rebel-linked activists, which accused Damascus of killing civilians with toxic gas.

The Russian Foreign Ministry reminded US on Thursday that all chemical weapons were taken out of Syria in mid-2014 with Washington’s assistance.

The ministry said that Russia considers US Vice President Mike Pence’s statements claiming that Moscow and Damascus allegedly did not fulfill obligations to destroy Syrian nuclear arsenal to be groundless, Sputnik reported.

Pence had no grounds to say that the 2013 deal on the Syrian chemical weapons’ destruction failed.

The ministry said that Russia-US cooperation on the issue was overall and quite successful.

Moscow said that it was premature to accuse the Syrian government of using chemical weapons in Idlib, adding that Russia insists on conducting a full-fledged probe into the issue.

In 2013, the Syrian authorities agreed to transfer its stockpiled chemical weapons to international control for their subsequent destruction, so as to prevent them from falling into the hands of militants operating in the country.

Syrian opposition claimed Tuesday forces loyal to President Bashar Assad had used a chemical gas on people in the Northwestern province, killing nearly 80 and injuring 200. Assad argued his government had no chemical weapons after agreeing to have them destroyed in 2013. He also ruled out having used chemicals against own people.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said earlier in the day that the US-UK-France-backed draft resolution on the chemical weapons in Syria was based on fake reports mostly from the White Helmets and the SOHR “which cannot be called reliable.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said early Wednesday the airstrike near Khan Sheikhoun was carried out by Syrian aircraft, which struck a terrorist warehouse that stored chemical weapons slated for delivery to Iraq.