Britain's foreign secretary says there are no plans to launch additional military strikes against Syria but his country and its allies will consider further action if Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad uses chemical weapons against his people in the future.
"There is no proposal on the table at the moment for further attacks because so far, thank heavens, the Assad regime have not been so foolish as to launch another chemical weapons attack," Boris Johnson told the BBC.
The U.S., France and Britain launched the strikes early Saturday morning, firing 105 missiles at three Syrian chemical weapons facilities — one in the capital of Damascus and two others near Homs, near the border with northern Lebanon.
U.S. military officials said an initial assessment showed every one of the missiles struck its target, reducing the facilities to rubble while avoiding any civilian casualties.
The action was in response to a recent attack in the town of Douma which killed more than 40 people and sickened hundreds more. The U.S. and its allies accused Assad's forces of using chemical weapons. Syria and Russia denied this.
U.S. defense officials say they have high confidence chlorine gas was used and are still assessing evidence indicating the presence of sarin gas. But late Saturday, senior administration officials called the evidence “incontrovertible.”
The Syrian Foreign Ministry Saturday condemned what it called “the brutal American-British-French aggression… which constitutes a flagrant violation of international law."
Russia also decried the U.S.-led operation as a failure, saying the majority of the rockets fired at Syria were intercepted by the Syrian government's air defense systems.
President Donald Trump called the joint military action "a perfectly executed strike. On Twitter Saturday, he thanked France and Britain for their "wisdom and the power of their fine Military. Could not have had a better results. Mission Accomplished!"
The U.S ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley warned the U.S. is "locked and loaded" if Syria uses chemical weapons again.
Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
