by Janet Varney
Middle East
A Day After U.S. Airstrikes in Syria, Assad Launches New Onslaught Against Rebels
Syria’s civil war ground on with Mr. Assad’s forces moving against areas outside regime control
BEIRUT—Syrian armed forces on Sunday unleashed airstrikes against rebels and shelled what rescue workers said were civilian homes, as President Bashar al-Assad sought to demonstrate his regime’s continued strength a day after a U.S.-led missile attack.
The American, French and British barrage of missiles on Saturday destroyed much of Syria’s chemical-weapons capabilities, U.S. Defense Department officials said but left Mr. Assad’s conventional military intact. American officials said the strikes were retaliation for a suspected regime attack—possibly with chlorine and a nerve agent—on Eastern Ghouta near Damascus on April 7 but weren’t designed to topple Mr. Assad or change the course of a war tilting in his favor.
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With the help of Russia and Iran, Mr. Assad has taken back much of the territory he lost after an antigovernment uprising in 2011 erupted into a full-scale civil war. While the alleged chemical-weapons attack forced opposition rebels to surrender in Douma, his forces have killed far more Syrians with conventional means of war such as barrel bombs, rockets, mortars, and sieges.
Of the more than 400,000 Syrian killed, fewer than 2,000 have lost their lives to chemical weapons, according to activists and human-rights groups.
Since the Western attack early Saturday morning local time, Mr. Assad’s regime tried to show that the country was going about its business normally. A nine-second video purportedly showing Mr. Assad walking into work, briefcase in hand was posted on his Twitter account, garnering over 1 million views.
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Mr. Assad was in a good mood Sunday as he met with Russian lawmakers, reported Interfax, a Russian state-backed news agency, which didn’t disclose the meeting’s location. Mr. Assad called the Western strikes an “act of aggression” and praised Russian defense systems, which he said shot down 71 of 103 missiles fired on Syria. The Pentagon denied those figures, calling Syrian anti-missile efforts ineffectual.
On Sunday, the seven-year conflict in Syria ground on almost as if nothing had happened, with Mr. Assad’s forces moving against areas north of Damascus outside regime control.
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Regime planes conducted at least 28 strikes in the countryside of Homs and Hama followed by artillery shelling, including on civilian areas, the White Helmets rescue group said on Sunday. On Saturday, the regime took full control of Douma, the scene of the suspected chemical-weapons attack and the last rebel-held pocket of Eastern Ghouta, which had been under siege for five years.
Separately, late on Saturday, an unexplained explosion ripped through an area in southern Aleppo believed to house Iranian forces and Iranian-backed Afghan militias. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the explosion may have occurred in a weapons depot. Hezbollah, a close ally of Iran, denied that the explosion was the result of an airstrike, according to media close to the militant group.
Arab leaders met in Saudi Arabia on Sunday for a summit dominated by talk of Syria, though without the participation of Mr. Assad, who was excluded from the Arab League in 2011. The Western strikes split the Arab world, with Saudi Arabia and Qatar expressing support while Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon expressed concerns about escalating Syria’s brutal conflict.
The missile strikes also divided Syrians who watched antiaircraft tracers light up the skies over Damascus early Saturday and heard explosions booming across the city’s hills. Some opposition leaders said the Western strikes weren’t enough as government supporters held rallies in Damascus, waving the Syrian flag.
The main Syrian opposition group participating in peace talks voiced support for the U.S.-led airstrikes but urged the international community to stop Mr. Assad’s use of conventional weapons as well.
“[T]he regime’s illegal, indiscriminate use of conventional weapons must not be allowed to continue,” Nasr al-Hariri, president of the Syrian Negotiation Commission, said in a statement. “This is the biggest killer of civilians.”
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It was the use of chemical weapons that represented a red line for the Trump administration and leaders in Britain and France.
U.S. officials said the missiles strikes hit three targets: a research center in Damascus, and chemical-weapons storage facilities and a military command post in Homs. U.S. officials said the strikes crippled the Assad government’s chemical-weapons program while leaving open the possibility that the government had residual capabilities. On Saturday, President Donald Trump declared “Mission Accomplished!”
The Assad regime has been repeatedly accused of using chemical weapons during the war, charges it has denied.
The singular focus of Friday’s strikes on chemical weapons reflected the changing U.S. priorities in Syria under the Trump administration, which has shifted away from even minimal support for rebel groups seeking to oust the Assad regime.
Before and during the strikes, the U.S.-led coalition—now focused on defeating Islamic State—told rebel groups it backs in Syria that the attack shouldn’t be interpreted as a shift to war against the Assad regime. About 2,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Syria to defeat the extremist group.
The U.S. coalition feared “we will attack the regime as well,” said Muhannad al-Talla, the commander of the Pentagon-backed Maghawir al-Thawra group based in eastern Syria.
The U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for the U.S. coalition operations in the Middle East, declined to comment.
On social media and chat forums, extremist groups derided the Western airstrikes as inefficient, saying they wouldn’t change anything on the ground. On a Deep Web forum, Islamic State supporters called the strikes “silly play” and “flexing of scrawny muscles,” the SITE Intel Group reported.
Nazih Osseiran contributed to this article.
Write to Sune Engel Rasmussen at sune.rasmussen@wsj.com and Raja Abdulrahim at raja.abdulrahim@wsj.com
By Janet Varney
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