France: US attack 'warning' to Assad regime

By Hajer M'tiri

PARIS (AA) - The U.S. airstrikes on a Syrian military airbase were a "warning" to and "condemnation" of Bashar al-Assad's "criminal regime," France’s foreign minister said Friday.

Jean-Marc Ayrault said he was informed by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson about the strike during the night.

The use of chemical weapons is a "terrible reality" which must be punished because it is a "war crime", he told reporters on the sidelines of a trip to Mauritania, referring to Tuesday’s Syrian attack that the airstrikes were retaliation against.

The chemical attack killed more than 100 civilians and injured around 500 others in the northwestern province of Idlib.

The U.S. strike was a "sort of condemnation" against the "criminal regime" of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, said Ayrault.

"It is a signal that has been given...it is a warning," he said, adding that Russia and Iran need to understand that supporting al-Assad makes no sense, and that France is not seeking a confrontation with those two countries.

He said his country's only role in Syria at present is its part in the coalition fighting Daesh.

The U.S. fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian military airbase American officials believe was used to carry out a deadly chemical attack Tuesday, the Pentagon confirmed.

The missiles were fired from two U.S. destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean and hit the airbase at approximately 3:45 a.m. Syrian local time Friday (0045GMT). Aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage, ammunition supply bunkers, air defense systems, and radars were targeted, the Pentagon said.