(WASHINGTON) — Two Syrian jets took off Friday from the air base that was hit by U.S. missiles and carried out strikes on areas under ISIS control in the countryside of eastern Homs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Syrian government responded to Thursday night’s U.S. strike on its Shaayrat air base by quickly fixing the base and allowing the two planes to take off from there, the human rights organization said.
A U.S. official said Syrian planes took off from the base Friday but did not confirm the action taken by the plane.
The official noted that up to 20 Syrian aircraft were destroyed in Thursday’s airstrikes but added that the missiles did not no target every aircraft at the base and that the runway was untouched.
The departures came after Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, warned Friday that the United States is “prepared to do more” in Syria, one day after U.S. warships fired a barrage of cruise missiles at the Syrian government air base.
“The United States took a very measured step last night. We are prepared to do more, but we hope that will not be necessary,” Haley said Friday during a special open session of the U.N. Security Council devoted to discussing Syria.
The United States launched the direct assault against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in response to a chemical weapons attack earlier this week that killed dozens of civilians.
Haley accused Assad’s regime of carrying out Tuesday’s horrific attack in northern Syria, saying this “fully justified” the U.S. government’s decision to strike the air base.
“The moral stain of the Assad regime could no longer go unanswered,” she said.
U.S. officials said a total 59 tomahawk missiles were launched from destroyers USS Porter and USS Ross in the Mediterranean Sea over a half-hour span beginning at 7:36 p.m. ET on Thursday. The strikes were aimed at the Shayrat Air Base in Syria’s Homs province, where an aircraft carrying the chemical weapons in Tuesday’s attack is believed to have taken off.
“The intent here wasn’t just to punish; it was deter future use,” retired Vice Adm. Robert Harward, an ABC News contributor and the former deputy commander of U.S. Central Command who turned down the role of national security adviser after Michael Flynn’s resignation, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Friday.
The Shayrat Air Base has been one of Russia’s main airfields in Syria, serving as a forward operating base for Russian attack helicopters to support Assad regime offensives in Homs province amid Syria’s ongoing conflict.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States did not discuss the military strike with Russian President Vladimir Putin or political leadership in Moscow either before or after it occurred. But the U.S. military said it communicated with its Russian counterpart to minimize any chance of Russian causalities, particularly any Russians operating out of the targeted air base.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who blamed Syria’s leader for the chemical weapons attack, said on Thursday night that the airstrikes were in the “vital national security interest” of the United States.
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