Army says it is preparing for more offensives to clear remaining territories outside government control near the capital Damascus.

Days after the suspected chemical attack which killed more than 40 people in Douma, Syrian government forces say they have now retaken the rebel pocket in Eastern Ghouta.

Now the Syrian government appears to be turning its attention to Homs, another strategic region in Syria.

Much of the central province has been recaptured in recent years but the opposition has long held an enclave in the northern countryside.

That area is strategic for Damascus if it wants to secure the roads linking government controlled cities in the west of the country.

Cyber security representatives from the US and Britain have warned of Russian state-sponsored cyber-attacks that are targeting network infrastructure devices such as routers and firewalls, to compromise government and private sectors globally.

According to a US Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT), the Technical Alert (TA) provided information on the worldwide cyber exploitation of network infrastructure devices (routers, switches, firewalls, Network-based Intrusion Detection Systems) by Russian state-sponsored cyber actors.

The joint TA is the result of analytic efforts between the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, according to information on the official website of the DHS.

“Victims were identified through a coordinated series of actions between US and international partners. The report builds on previous DHS reporting and advisories from the UK, Australia and the European Union,” the website said.

“The FBI has high confidence that Russian state-sponsored cyber actors are using compromised routers to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks to support espionage, extract intellectual property, maintain persistent access to victim networks, and potentially lay a foundation for future offensive operations,” the website added.

Since 2015, the US government has been receiving information from multiple sources — including private and public sector cyber security research organisations and allies — that cyber actors were exploiting large numbers of enterprise-class and residential routers and switches worldwide.

The US government assessed that cyber actors supported by the Russian government carried out this worldwide campaign.

These operations enable espionage and intellectual property that supports the Russian Federation’s national security and economic goals, the website said.

Russian cyber actors leverage a number of legacy or weak protocols and service ports associated with network administration activities.

Cyber actors use these weaknesses to identify vulnerable devices, extract device configurations, harvest login credentials, modify device firmware, and copy or redirect victim traffic through Russian cyber-actor-controlled infrastructure.

Organisations can use publicly available cyber security guidance and best practices from DHS, allied governments, vendors and the private-sector cyber security community on mitigation strategies for the exploitation vectors to safeguard their networks.

India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will hold bilateral talks with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi during her two-day China visit beginning on Saturday.
Sushma Swaraj will meet Wang on the sidelines of the foreign ministers’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Summit (SCO).

She will meet a more powerful Wang, who in March was elevated to China’s top diplomatic post of State Councillor. They are likely to discuss a host of thorny issues.

India-China ties were severely hit by the 73-day military stand-off in Doklam last year. Both sides are now trying to restore normalcy to their ties by stepping up bilateral exchanges.

China’s opposition to India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and its move to block bids at the UN to list Masood Azhar, chief of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group, as a global terrorist, has irked New Delhi.

In addition, New Delhi has reservations about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which cuts through Pakistan-held Kashmir that is claimed by India.

Sushma Swaraj, whose last visit to China was in 2015, is also likely to meet other top Chinese leaders.

India’s Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will also visit China next week and hold a dialogue with her counterpart.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in June on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Summit.

India and Pakistan were admitted to the China-led block in 2017.

British delegation calls on Russia and Syria to allow access as Russian deputy FM says delay is due to US-led strikes
Chemical weapons inspectors have not yet been allowed access to Syria’s Douma, UK officials said as the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) met to discuss the “alleged use of chemical weapons” in Syria.
“Russia and Syria have not yet allowed access to Douma,” the British delegation tweeted on Sunday, adding that “unfettered access [is] essential” and “Russia and Syria must cooperate”.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov immediately denied the allegations that inspectors were not being allowed access, according to Russian news agency RIA.

He said the arrival of the inspectors were delayed as a result of the US-led air strikes on Saturday.

The OPCW, an intergovenmental organisation that oversees the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, met with delegates in The Hague on Monday to discuss events surrounding the April 7 attack in Douma.

Syrian government forces retook Douma last week, gaining full control over the former rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta, Russian military officials announced at the time.

The announcement came just days after dozens people were killed by alleged chemical weapons attack in the town, sparking international outcry and prompting the US, UK and France to launch missile strikes on facilities believed to be used to research, develop and store chemical weapons inside Syria.

The Chemical Weapons Convention outlaws the production or stockpiling of chemical weapons.

Syria is a signatory of the treaty. Egypt, Israel, North Korea and South Sudan are the only nonsignatory nations.

‘Barbaric use of chemical weapons’
Peter Wilson, the UK’s OPCW envoy, told the watchdog body that failure to act in Syria will cause “further barbaric use of chemical weapons.

Syria has lived through a seven-year civil war that has killed at least half a million people and created an international refugee crisis.

“The Syrian Regime has an abhorrent record of using chemical weapons against its own people. Chemical weapons use has become an all too regular weapon of war in the Syrian conflict,” Wilson said, going on to cite 390 allegations of chemical weapons attacks since 2014.

Russia has impeded international bodies from investigating these attacks, Wilson added.

Russia told the UN last Friday that its experts found no trace of “toxic substance use” during their investigation in Douma.

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s UN ambassador, said Russia has “clear evidence” that the chemical attack was staged.

For its part, France has said it has evidence Russia was responsible.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has said her country will announce new sanctions on the Russian government in response to its support for Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.

Aljazeera

Morocco has deplored the deterioration of the situation in the Middle East, including last week’s military escalation in Syria, and has said that “military options” will not only make quest for political solutions difficult but will deepen civilian suffering and “heighten anti-West sentiment”.

Morocco, which has always respected international law, can only condemn the use of chemical weapons, particularly against innocent civilian populations, an official source told the official MAP news agency, adding that “past experiences have taught us that military options, including air strikes — no matter how justified or proportionate they can be — only make it more difficult to find a political solution, deepen the suffering of civilian victims and heighten their anti-West sentiment”.

The timing chosen for this escalation, on the eve of important Arab events, and the absence of the usual appropriate consultations, may raise questions, misunderstanding and indignation, the source said.

Similarly, the different standards adopted in the management of international conflicts, in some cases resorting quickly to military options and, in other cases, imposing international legality, would only fuel international tensions.

The Kingdom of Morocco considers that the solution to the Syrian crisis can only be political and hopes that reason will prevail with a view to finding a solution to the crisis that preserves the national unity of this country and the dignity of these populations and secures an effective fight against intolerance, extremism and terrorism, the source, familiar with the thinking of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that he “convinced” his American counterpart Donald Trump to remain in Syria before the coordinated strikes launched against targeted Syrian government sites in response to an alleged chemical attack, the media reported.

“Ten days ago, President Trump said the US’s will is to disengage from Syria. We convinced him that it was necessary to stay,” CNN quoted Macron as saying on Sunday during a two-hour televised interview with several French media outlets.

On Friday night, the US, France and the UK launched a series of strikes on a research laboratory and two storage facilities associated with Syria’s chemical weapons programme.

Satellite images of the facilities, located west of Homs and near the capital Damascus, before and after the strikes appear to show they suffered extensive damage.

France also convinced Trump that the strikes had to be limited to suspected chemical weapons sites, Macron added.

Prior to the strikes, there had been reports that Trump wanted to see tougher, more extended action in Syria but was talked down by his national security team.

The strike was fiercely condemned by Syria’s main ally Russia, who attempted to bring a motion in the UN Security Council on Saturday to denounce the “aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic by the US and its allies”.

During Sunday’s interview, Macron said Russian President Vladimir Putin was an “accomplice” to Syria’s alleged use of chemicals weapons.

“They have not used chlorine themselves, but they have methodically contributed to the international community’s powerlessness to prevent the use of chemical weapons by diplomatic means,” CNN quoted the French leader as saying.

The French President said his country had not declared war on Syria, calling the strikes a “reprisal” for violations of the treaty banning the use of chemical weapons.

“There has been repeated and proven violations of the treaty,” he said.

Friday night’s strikes were a response to the suspected chemical weapons attack on civilians in Douma, outside Damascus, on April 7 where over 70 people including children were killed.

Inspectors for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) were due to go to Douma on Sunday after arriving in Syria shortly after Saturday’s strikes, and are yet to report on any findings.

The US and its allies have been criticized for acting before inspectors had a chance to examine the site.

Politicians in France and the UK on Monday will seek answers from the countries’ leaders about their decision to launch strikes without formal approval.

Protests against the strikes were held around the world Saturday, including in major cities in the UK, Mexico, Greece and the US.

(IANS)

Air strikes by Britain, France and the United States in Syria sent a “clear message” against the use of chemical weapons, British Prime Minister Theresa May said today and declared the action as successful.

The British Prime Minister told reporters at a Downing Street press conference on Saturday that the coordinated strikes to degrade the Bashar al-Assad led Syrian regime’s chemical weapons capability involved four Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado GR 4s.

“This collective action sends a clear message that the international community will not stand by and tolerate the use of chemical weapons,” she said.

The tornadoes launched storm shadow missiles at a military facility some 15 miles west of Homs, where the Assad regime was assessed to have kept chemical weapons in breach of Syria’s obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

“While the full assessment of the strike is ongoing, we are confident of its success it was a limited, targeted and effective strike with clear boundaries that expressly sought to avoid escalation and did everything possible to prevent civilian casualties,” May said.

Acknowledging that there no “graver decision” for a prime minister than to commit the country’s forces to combat, Theresa May said that following discussions with US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron the trio had agreed to hit a specific and limited set of targets.

These included a chemical weapons storage and production facility, a key chemical weapons research centre and a military bunker involved in chemical weapons attacks.

“Hitting these targets with the force that we have deployed will significantly degrade the Syrian Regime’s ability to research, develop and deploy chemical weapons,” she said.

Making a reference to Russia, which has been supporting the Syrian regime, Theresa May indicated that the strikes were also intended as a message to Moscow over its own use of a deadly nerve agent against former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury last month.

“We cannot allow the use of chemical weapons to become normalised either within Syria, on the streets of the UK or elsewhere. We must reinstate the global consensus that chemical weapons cannot be used,” she said.

In a statement, Russian President Vladimir Putin described the air strikes as an “act of aggression” by the three western allies, which would worsen the humanitarian crisis in Syria.

The UK’s Opposition Labour party branded the strikes as “legally questionable”, conducted without the backing or vote in the UK Parliament. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn condemned the government’s involvement in the US-led strikes, saying it “makes real accountability for war crimes and use of chemical weapons less, not more likely”.

May said that due to “operational security reasons” it had been “right and legal” to take the action in the way that the US, France and Britain had.

The strikes, which had been expected since Trump had tweeted a series of warnings to Syria over the past week, follows reports last Saturday of up to 75 people, including young children, being killed in the Syrian city of Douma.

Theresa May stressed that after assessments, alongside the US and France, all the indications were that it had been a chemical weapons attack which led to some harrowing images of men, women and children lying dead with foam in their mouths.

The British PM had received her Cabinet’s backing for military action during an emergency meeting on Thursday. The UK asserts that the action is not about interfering in a civil war or about regime change.

Earlier on Saturday, UK defence secretary Gavin Williamson also described the air strikes as a “highly successful mission”, adding that the UK, France and America had played an important role in “degrading the ability of the Syrian regime to use chemical weapons”.

The Syrian leader has survived seven years of conflict that has devastated much of the country he presides over.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has survived seven years of a devastating war and intense international pressure to step aside.

While Saturday’s US-led air strikes on Syrian government facilities will be a blow to his attempts to unify Syria under his rule, there’s been little suggestion that they are aimed at ending his presidency.

After rapid rebel gains in the early years of the uprising against his authoritarian rule, the possibility that he would join a growing list of deposed Arab rulers was real.
But today, it’s the rebels on the back foot, having lost key strongholds inside the Syrian capital, Damascus, and in the northern city of Aleppo.

Even senior diplomats from states opposed to his government, such as the British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, have said Assad can continue running for Syria’s top office.

Here, Al Jazeera looks at some of the reasons why he has lasted so long:

1. Foreign backing
In the summer of 2012, it was the rebels who had the momentum. A bomb blast in central Damascus had killed senior Syrian officials including the country’s defence minister and Assad’s brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat.

The rebels thought victory was near.

“The Syrian army had all but collapsed,” the Free Syrian Army Commander, Bashar al-Zoubi, told Al Jazeera.

It was at around this time that Iran stepped up its intervention in the country, providing training, experienced commanders, and foot soldiers in the form of Shia militias.

Iranian media outlets put the number of fighters Tehran has provided to the Syrian government in the tens of thousands.

The Iranian-trained National Defence Forces militia had a peak strength of 90,000 fighters and is widely credited with turning the tide of the war.

For Iran, Assad is a crucial ally and pivotal to protecting its interests in the region.

But while Iran’s contribution has come largely in the form of boots on the ground, it is the Russians who have provided Assad with arguably his biggest boost.

Starting in September 2015, Moscow began air strikes against Syrian rebel targets.

Their aerial campaign helped force Syrian rebels to abandon their strongholds in Aleppo, as well as in Eastern Ghouta.

2. Rebel divisions
Assad has benefited from divisions within the rebel ranks, as the loosely aligned Free Syrian Army broke up into rival factions, and harder line groups took up the anti-government cause.

Opposition groups initially welcomed the support of the fledgling Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS), but soon found themselves fighting it, drawing resources and fighters away from the campaign against Assad.

ISIL won out against the rebels in key cities, such as Raqqa, and forced the opposition from vast tracts of the country.

While rebel groups did regain some territory from ISIL, former rebel territory was recaptured from the group by Kurdish fighters and the government forces.

ISIL was not the only thorn in the rebels’ side, today there are dozens of rebel factions who are divided over regional affiliation, ethnic identity, political stance, and religious affiliation.

3. International stance
While Western countries and regional powers, such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia, have been vocal in their opposition to Assad, none have taken decisive action to remove the Syrian leader.

Despite rebel appeals, the US has avoided the kind of military intervention that it launched in Libya, which helped rebels there bring down long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

While arms have come through to rebel groups, opposition leaders say they are insufficient to counter the threat of the Syrian government’s air power.

The US decision not to supply weapons capable of doing so is influenced by fears that they could fall into the hands of groups like ISIL and, then later, be used against Western interests.

As the war has dragged on, an increasing number of officials in the West have deprioritised the importance of removing Assad.

In March 2017, the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley said that getting rid of Assad was no longer the main focus of US policy.

Two months earlier, the British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson said Assad could stay as part of a peace deal.

4. Internal support
Despite widespread opposition to his rule, Assad continues to maintain significant levels of support within Syria.

Such support extends beyond his own Alawite community, and also includes members of the Sunni community who have benefited financially during his rule and have little interest in changing the status quo.

ALjazeera

In a combined operation, the US, Britain and France today launched military strikes against Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime, President Donald Trump announced, as he alleged the war-torn nation of using chemical weapons against its own people.

The US president claimed that the joint action was meant to establish a “strong deterrent” against the production, spread, and use of chemical weapons.

Trump said he has ordered “precision strikes” against Syria, where dozens of people were killed last weekend in a suspected toxic gas attack on Douma, the largest town in a former rebel stronghold outside Damascus.

“These are not the actions of a man; they are crimes of a monster instead,” Trump said in an address to the nation.

Describing the strike as a deterrent, Trump said the US would maintain pressure on Syria until the Assad regime suspends use of chemical weapons.

“America does not seek an indefinite presence in Syria,” he said, thanking the UK and France for joining the US in its fight against the Syrian regime.

“Today, the nations of Britain, France, and the United States of America have marshalled their righteous power against barbarism and brutality,” Trump said.

He attacked the Assad regime for “deploying chemical weapons to slaughter innocent civilians”, referring to the alleged atrocity in Douma last Saturday.

“This massacre was a significant escalation in a pattern of chemical weapons use by that very terrible regime,” Trump alleged.

“The evil and the despicable attack left mothers and fathers, infants and children, thrashing in pain and gasping for air. These are not the actions of a man; they are crimes of a monster instead,” he said.

The US president sought to bring back the vestiges of World War I, after which civilised nations joined together to ban chemical warfare.

He noted that chemical weapons not only inflict gruesome suffering but also even small amounts of them can unleash widespread devastation.

“The purpose of our actions tonight is to establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread, and use of chemical weapons. Establishing this deterrent is a vital national security interest of the United States,” Trump said.

“The combined American, British, and French response to these atrocities will integrate all instruments of our national power — military, economic, and diplomatic. We are prepared to sustain this response until the Syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents,” he said.

Trump said he also has a message for the two governments most responsible for supporting, equipping, and financing the criminal Assad regime.

“To Iran, and to Russia, I ask: What kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women, and children?” he asked.

“The nations of the world can be judged by the friends they keep. No nation can succeed in the long run by promoting rogue states, brutal tyrants, and murderous dictators,” he said.

Trump said Assad’s recent attack was a fallout of Russia’s “failure” to keep the promise of eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons.

“In 2013, President Putin and his government promised the world that they would guarantee the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons. Assad’s recent attack are the direct result of Russia’s failure to keep that promise,” Trump said.

“Russia must decide if it will continue down this dark path, or if it will join with civilised nations as a force for stability and peace. Hopefully, someday we’ll get along with Russia, and maybe even Iran — but maybe not,” he said.

The US president said America, being the world’s greatest and most powerful economy, has a lot to offer.

“In Syria, the United States — with but a small force being used to eliminate what is left of ISIS — is doing what is necessary to protect the American people. Over the last year, nearly 100 percent of the territory once controlled by the so-called ISIS caliphate in Syria and Iraq has been liberated and eliminated,” he said.

The US, UK and France launched coordinated strikes against Syrian research, storage and military targets as President Donald Trump sought to “punish” his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad for a suspected chemical attack that killed over 70 people, media reports said.

The strikes on Friday night was intended to show Western resolve in the face of what the leaders of the three nations called persistent violations of international law, reports The New York Times.

“I ordered the US armed forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with the chemical weapon capabilities of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad,” Trump said from the White House Diplomatic Reception Room.

“The combined American, British and French response to these atrocities will integrate all instruments of our national power: military, economic and diplomatic,” Trump said.

In his speech, Trump deemed the chemical attack in Douma as “Not the actions of a man… They are crimes of a monster instead.”

Trump indicated the strikes would continue until the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons ends, reports CNN.

“We are prepared to sustain this response until the Syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents,” he added.

The strikes targeted three facilities associated with Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, including a scientific research facility around Damascus, a chemical weapons storage facility around Homs alleged to be used for sarin gas and a nearby command post, according to the Pentagon.

The Syrian Observatory said the Syrian Army’s 4th Division and Republican Guard were among the targets.

US aircraft including B-1 bombers and ships were used in the attack, US defence officials said.

Witnesses told CNN that they heard explosions in Damascus which began while Trump was making his address.

The capital city’s residents woke to the sounds of multiple explosions shaking the city before the dawn call to prayer.

The city and the hills are surrounded by military facilities, and it appeared that these were among the first targets, reports The New York Times.

Syrian state television said government air defence systems were responding to “the American aggression” and aired video of missiles being fired into a dark night sky.

It was not clear if they hit anything. It reported that 13 missiles had been shot down by Syrian air defences near Al-Kiswa, a town south of Damascus.

The targets were chosen to minimise the risk of accidentally hitting Russian troops stationed in Syria, according to Gen. James F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Defence Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday night that the strike was completed and was designed as a one-night operation.

“Right now this is a one-time shot and I believe it has sent a very strong message to dissuade him to deter him from doing it again,” he said.

The strikes marked the second time that Trump has attacked Syria to punish the government after it was accused of using chemical weapons.

In April 2017, the US fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base in retaliation to a chemical attack that killed over 100 people.

While France and Britain joined the US, Germany refused to take part, even though Chancellor Angela Merkel called the use of chemical weapons “unacceptable”, The New York Times reported.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said Syria had left the allies no choice.

“This persistent pattern of behaviour must be stopped… Not just to protect innocent people in Syria from the horrific deaths and casualties caused by chemical weapons but also because we cannot allow the erosion of the international norm that prevents the use of these weapons,” she said.