US-led airstrikes, in Syria, being referred to as - mission accomplished

friday night, President Trump ordered airstrikes to hit three Syrian targets that are being controlled by Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad. The first airstrike hit the Barzah Research and Development Center which is outside of Damascus. The second and third airstrikes hit a place that the United States military calls "the Him Shinshar chemical weapons complex" which is located in the city of Homs. The airstrikes were a response to a chemical weapons attack on civilians in a suburb of Damascus.

The aftermath

A day after President Trump ordered the airstrikes, administration officials and Trump declared the airstrikes to be a “Mission Accomplished.” Trump previously tweeted “a perfectly executed strike last night.

Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine military. Could not have had a better result. Mission accomplished!”

Other United States officials were able to back up Trump’s “mission accomplished” tweet and stated that their operations were successful. Spokesperson Dana White stated “We met our objectives. We hit the sites, the heart of the chem-weapons program. So it was mission accomplished.”

Vice President Mike Pence also commented on the strikes by stating that the strikes that hit Syria “degraded and crippled chemical weapons capabilities in the country.” In addition to the comment that Pence made, he also stated that the expressions that our President gave us yesterday morning were a strong proclamation that the mission he gave to our military, of destroying the main elements that create their chemical weapons infrastructure, was accomplished.

As much as the attacks may have destroyed the key elements that Syria needed to create chemical weapons, it did not solve all of the problems Syria still has. The alliance secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg states “I am not saying that the attacks last night solved all problems but compared to the alternative which is to do nothing, it was the right thing to do.”

The launch of the airstrikes

Before the United States launched their airstrikes in Syria, they did not reach the Damascus suburb of Douma where the attack took place.

When the United States was planning to launch the airstrikes in Syria, they were confident that the regime in Syria had conducted the deadly attack.

President Trump had announced to the American people that he had launched strikes on Syria, with the help of France and the United Kingdom, after a whole week threatening retaliation for the chemical weapons attack in Douma.

The strikes occurred in Syria at around 9 PM ET which were the early morning hours on Saturday for the Middle East.

Trump also stated that he is prepared to keep responding with airstrikes like the ones that were just ordered until the Syrian regime stops the use of prohibited chemical agents.

United States defense secretary James Mattis stated that the missiles were just a one-time shot for now and the strikes sent by the United States sent a really strong message to stop Assad from carrying out any more chemical attacks.

With the launch of each airstrike, there were a total of 105 missiles that were launched. The missiles successfully hit every target that they were aimed at.

Authorities were not aware of any civilian casualties but on Syria state TV, it was reported that there were three people wounded in Homs after missiles were sent out by Syrian air-defense systems. However, Lt Gen. Kenneth McKenzie stated that none of the missiles in this operation were engaged by any of the Syrian air defenses.