AMERICA HAS RECEIVED support from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey after launching an airstrike that killed six Syrian soldiers.
US President Donald Trump said that the strike was in retaliation for the “barbaric” chemical attack he blamed on the government of his counterpart Bashar al-Assad.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau backed the strike.
“Canada fully supports the United States’ limited and focused action to degrade the Assad regime’s ability to launch chemical weapons attacks against innocent civilians, including many children,” he said in a statement.
Russia, however says it wants an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council after angrily denouncing the military action as an “aggression against a sovereign state.”
Syria’s regime has denied using chemical weapons in Khan Sheikhun, where at least 86 people, including 30 children, were reported killed and more than 500 wounded.
With US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson due in Moscow next week, the Kremlin called the US strike a “gross… violation of international law” and warned it would inflict “considerable damage” on US-Russia ties.
Opposition wants more strikes
The strike targeted radars, aircraft, air defence systems and other logistical components at the base south of Homs in central Syria.
US officials said measures had been put in place to avoid hitting sarin gas they said was stored at the airfield.
In a statement read on state television, the Syrian army confirmed the strike and said it had caused extensive damage.
Syria’s opposition and rebel fighters, who have for years urged more direct US military action in support of their uprising, hailed the strike and called for more.
The National Coalition, the main opposition grouping, called on Washington to take further steps to “neutralise” the regime’s air power.
“We hope for more strikes… and that these are just the beginning,” spokesman Ahmad Ramadan told AFP.
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