The Pentagon is drawing up options for a possible military response to Tuesday’s chemical weapons attack in Syria that killed more than 70 people, and hospitalized hundreds more.
“There are very senior level meetings underway,” said one Pentagon official, “but I have not seen a concrete plan.”
The meetings involve Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, and include consultations with other senior commanders, including Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command. The meetings are taking place amid new reports of another chemical attack in Syria.
“Options yes. We are in the business of providing options,” a second senior military official said. “I would watch this one closely.”
A third official said, “The options include any legitimate military target including chemical plants, aircraft, command and control centers. We have a lot of options because we have a lot of assets in the area,” not just planes but cruise missiles fired from ships in the Mediterranean.
“There are a host of considerations,” the official added, including what Syrian President Bashar Assad’s response might be and what threat it might pose to U.S. troops on the ground.
The first official could not say if President Trump had specifically ordered the options, or if the meeting constituted “prudent planning,” considering Trump’s Rose Garden statements Wednesday.
“I have that flexibility,” Trump said, “and I will tell you, it’s already happened that my attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much. … What happened yesterday is unacceptable to me.”
The U.S. now has a high degree of confidence that Assad’s air force dropped a chemical weapon from an aircraft on the unsuspecting citizens of Khan Sheikhoun, in Syria’s northwest Idlib province. “We watched the aircraft circle over the area,” the third official said.
The symptoms suffered by the victims, including foaming at the mouth and asphyxiation, are consistent with exposure to sarin, a deadly nerve agent.
Pentagon planners have to take into account the presence of Russian forces and Iranian militia if they contemplate airstrikes to punish the Assad regime.
The U.S. could use its existing deconfliction channel with the Russians to avoid targets that would cause Russian casualties.
