Navy ready to launch first strike on Syria
Britain is planning to join forces with America and launch military action against Syria within days in response to the gas attack believed to have been carried out by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces against his own people.
The Royal Navy's helicopter
carrier HMS Illustrious is currently deployed in the Mediterranean Photo: REUTERS
Royal Navy vessels are being readied to take part in a possible series of
cruise missile strikes, alongside the United States, as military commanders
finalise a list of potential targets.
Government sources said talks between the Prime Minister and international
leaders, including Barack Obama, would continue, but that any military action
that was agreed could begin within the next week.
As the preparations gathered pace, William Hague, the Foreign Secretary,
warned that the world could not stand by and allow the Assad regime to use
chemical weapons against the Syrian people “with impunity”.
Britain, the US and their allies must show Mr Assad that to perpetrate such
an atrocity “is to cross a line and that the world will respond when that line
is crossed”, he said.
British forces now look likely to be drawn into an intervention in the Syrian
crisis after months of deliberation and international disagreement over how to
respond to the bloody two-year civil war.
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