Trump Warns Russia And Syria: Missiles 'Will Be Coming'
After suggesting nearly a full withdrawal from Syria last week, President Trump has done a full 180 this morning, tweeting that the US could be firing missiles at Syria:
The declaration came after the Russian ambassador to Lebanon said that Russia would shoot down any US missiles fired at Syria and that they would target their launch sites.
The two threats signal an escalation of the conflict in Syria into full-on proxy war.
Russia has allied itself with Syria's dictatorial leader Bashar al-Assad, while the US has sporadically supported Syrian rebels. Israel has also been accused of bombing Syrian airbases that were reportedly being used by Iran to orchestrate weapons shipments through Syria to Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Over the weekend, Assad's forces were accused of using chemical weapons on the last suburban stronghold of the rebels. President Trump and others condemned the suspected attack and left the possibility of a military strike open. Last year, after a different suspected chemical attack by Assad, President Trump ordered an attack on a Syrian airbase.
According to The Washington Post, the US is creating an argument with videos and photographs that the attack used chemical weapons. On Tuesday, the UN failed to reach an agreement to create a body to investigate the attack in questions, as the US and Russia voted against each other's proposals.
The US, the UK and France have acknowledged that they are currently in talks to orchestrate a joint response.
In tweets that came hours later, Trump called for a stop to the US' arms race with Russia, and blamed Special Counsel Mueller's investigation for recent tensions with the superpower:
