White House transcript: President Trump’s full statement on strikes in #Syria.
President Donald Trump explained his bombing of a Syrian airfield on April 6 by saying that Bashar al-Assad “choked out the lives of helpless men, women, and children.”
You can read the full statement above on the bombing of the Shayrat airfield.
According to NBC News, the U.S. military at Trump’s order fired “59 Tomahawk missiles into Ash Sha’irat in Homes.”
In the statement, distributed on Twitter via the White House Press pool, Trump accused Assad of launching a “horrible chemical attack on innocent civilians using a deadly nerve agent.”
WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 05: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with King Abdullah II of Jordan in the Rose Garden of the White House April 5, 2017 in Washington, DC. President Trump held talks on Middle East peace process and other bilateral issues with King Abdullah II. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
The victims of the Syrian chemical attack suffered a “slow and brutal death,” Trump said in the statement, adding, “No child of God should ever suffer such horror.”
Trump said he ordered a “targeted military strike” on the airfield in Syria “from where the chemical attack was launched.”
He said that the attack was in the “vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.”
Syria used “banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and ignored the urging of the UN Security Council,” said the American president.
The U.S. Pentagon also released a statement:
PENTAGON: At direction of POTUS, U.S. forces conducted cruise missile strike against a Syrian Air Force airfield today at about 8:40 pm EDT
It was a stunning turn of events, notable for its swiftness, and coming as global outcry emerged following the chemical weapons attack. The world expressed outrage as social media flooded with photos of gassed children, including one heartbreaking image of a father holding his two deceased twins.
You can watch the video of the president’s statement here:
