Russia diverts warship to protect Syria from US air strikes

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, yesterday diverted a warship to protect the Syrian coast and vowed to bolster Bashar al-Assad’s missile defences against further US strikes. The United States had fired cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase from which President Donald Trump said a deadly chemical weapons attack was launched, killing over 80 people. The US […]

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, yesterday diverted a warship to protect the Syrian coast and vowed to bolster Bashar al-Assad’s missile defences against further US strikes.

The United States had fired cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase from which President Donald Trump said a deadly chemical weapons attack was launched, killing over 80 people.

The US assault was the first on the government of Bashar al-Assad in six years of the Syrian civil war.

The Russian president immediately sent his Admiral Grigorovich frigate, armed with cruise missiles and a self-defence system, from the Black Sea to dock in Syria.

It passed through the east Mediterranean waters where the USS Ross and USS Porter fired the 59 Tomahawk missiles that pounded Assad’s al-Shayrat military airfield near Homs.

Putin yesterday called it an ‘illegal act of aggression’ and also ripped up an agreement to avoid mid-air clashes between Russian and US fighter jets over Syria.

In the continuing fight back, Russian or Syrian planes also bombed the town of Khan Sheikhoun, witnesses in the rebel-held area said.

The US was also branded ‘a partner of ISIS’ by al-Assad’s spokesman, calling the missile strikes ‘reckless and irresponsible’ and accused Trump of ‘naively falling’ for a ‘false propaganda campaign’ about the Idlib Sarin massacre.

World leaders praised the US strikes and urged Putin to hold urgent talks with Trump to prevent the Syria crisis escalating into a wider world conflict.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, speaking alongside German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, said: ‘We do not want an escalation. We have to stop the hypocrisy. If Russia is acting in good faith it should stop and negotiate. We do not wish to raise the stakes, but to find a solution. You cannot deal with reality (use of chemical weapons) by resorting to propaganda.’