U.S. & U.K. to srop missiles on Syria within days [Archive]

Silver Rocket Bitches!

26th August 2013, 06:29 AM

BRITAIN and the US are set to launch missile strikes against the Syrian regime in retaliation for its barbaric chemical attack on civilians.
David Cameron and Barack Obama discussed the plan in a 40-minute phone call at the weekend and will finalise the details within 48 hours. The two leaders want to send a clear warning to dictator Bashar Al-Assad over the deaths of as many as 1,300 people, many of them children.
William Hague said 'all the evidence' suggested Assad's henchmen carried out last week's horrific nerve gas atrocity. 'We cannot, in the 21st century, allow the idea that chemical weapons can be used with impunity - that people can be killed in this way and that there are no consequences,' insisted the Foreign Secretary.
'It is very important there is a very strong response so that dictators know that using chemical weapons is to cross a line, and that the world will respond.'

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US President Barack Obama with British Prime Minister David Cameron. Photo: AFP Source: AFP

Royal Navy commanders in the region are preparing to take part in the assault, which is likely to be unleashed within ten days.
Government sources indicate the cruise missile blitz will be short and will not signal any wider involvement in Syria's bloody civil war.
But it will inevitably lead to fears that Britain could get sucked into another Iraq-style nightmare. MPs last night demanded the recall of Parliament for the Commons to have a say before any action goes ahead. Planners in strikes rather than an airborne bombing campaign, in order to avoid the dangers posed by the sophisticated air defences supplied to Syria by Russia.
A British source said 'naval assets in the region' were likely to be involved, suggesting the possible use of submarine-borne Tomahawk cruise missiles.

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A Syrian man mourns over a dead body after an alleged poisonous gas attack fired by regime forces, according to activists. Photo: AP Source: AP

In an ominous development Damascus last night warned US president Obama that any intervention would not be a 'walk in the park', adding: 'It will bring chaos and the region will burn.' Iran warned the West it would face 'severe consequences' if it intervened in Syria.
And Russia, which has blocked UN action against Syria, said unilateral action by the West would undermine efforts for peace and have a 'devastating impact' on the security situation in the Middle East.
The Syrian regime last night attempted to head off a military intervention by the West by announcing it would finally allow United Nations experts to visit the gas atrocity site in Damascus. Inspectors are expected to begin their work today.
But Washington and London dismissed the move, saying it was 'too late to be credible', and followed almost a week of shelling of the area during which much of the evidence may have been destroyed.
Britain, the United States and France have all blamed the Assad regime for the attack because the rebel fighters are not thought to have the capability to carry out an atrocity on that scale.
President Francois Hollande, who spoke to Mr Cameron yesterday, is also pushing for swift military retaliation and could authorise the use of French forces in the attack.

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Black columns of smoke rise from heavy shelling in the Jobar neighbourhood, east of Damascus, Syria. Photo: AP Source: AP

In a statement following the talks, Downing Street said the two men 'agreed that a chemical weapons attack against the Syrian people on the scale that was emerging demanded a firm response from the international community. This crime must not be swept under the carpet.' Mr Hollande's office said: 'France is determined that this act does not go unpunished.' A Government source said the Prime Minister had not abandoned hope of achieving tougher UN action against Syria in the future. But with Russia frustrating progress, the source said Mr Cameron believed any short-term military response would have to be taken outside the UN process.
'This looks like one of the worst chemical weapons attacks of modern times,' another Government source said.
'If you are responding to an attack on this scale you have to do it quickly. If you let it go for two, three, four weeks there is a danger you send a message that it doesn't matter.' Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has discussed the crisis several times with Mr Cameron in recent days and a senior Lib Dem source said there would be an agreed Coalition response. 'The Government is working as one on this,' the source said.

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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Source: AFP

A government source said it was 'possible' that Parliament could be recalled early from its summer recess this week to discuss the crisis. But the source stressed that Mr Cameron had always reserved the 'flexibility' to order a military strike in response to fast-moving events without recourse to Parliament.
Former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown yesterday warned against rushing to military action on Syria. But Lord Ashdown, who remains close to Mr Clegg, acknowledged that the UN would be 'greatly diminished' if the world failed to respond to Assad's 'terrible breach' of international law.
Bob Corker, the ranking Republican on the US Senate foreign affairs committee, said he had spoken to the Obama administration about its plans for Syria and believed the president would seek authorisation from Congress.
'I think we will respond in a surgical way and I hope the president as soon as we get back to Washington will ask for authorisation from Congress to do something in a very surgical and proportional way,' he told Fox News.
A Downing Street spokesman said: 'No decisions have been taken on military action and the timetable for a serious response from the international community is not yet clear.
'We are very conscious of when MPs are due to return and haven't ruled out recalling them earlier.'