US told intl coalition before its strike: Turkish FM

By Meltem Bulur

ANKARA (AA) - Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Friday that the U.S. had informed the international anti-Daesh coalition before its attack on a Syrian airbase.

"There is nothing wrong on this issue," Cavusoglu told reporters in the Mediterranean province of Antalya.

He added that U.S. Ambassador to Turkey John R. Bass had also contacted his ministry's undersecretary.

Saying that Turkey supported the U.S. missile attacks on the Syrian airbase, he added: "We consider the U.S. intervention appropriate and support it."

Cavusoglu also said the Bashar al-Assad regime must be removed from power and the best way to do this is to establish a transitional government.

Pointing to the importance of safe zones in Syria, an idea Turkey has long championed, Cavusoglu said that the establishment of such zones is now more necessary than ever.

The U.S. fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at Shayrat 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 air base 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.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry also released a statement praising the U.S. action against the Syrian regime.

“We welcome the U.S. operation early this morning targeting the Syrian regime’s Shayrat Airbase in the aftermath of the regime’s Khan Shaykhun chemical weapons attack,” it said.

The ministry pledged that Turkey would support steps “to ensure accountability and to prevent impunity in the case of such crimes.”

“Turkey will continue its cooperation with the international community to prevent the regime’s continued practices of terror and mass punishment directed at its own people and to pave the way for the advancement of a political solution in Syria,” the statement said.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, more than a quarter-million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-battered country, according to the UN.

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, however, put the death toll from the six-year conflict at more than 470,000 people.