WASHINGTON _ Defense Secretary James N. Mattis made clear that last week's U.S. cruise missile strike on a Syrian airfield did not mark the start of a new military campaign, but warned that any future use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar Assad could draw fresh U.S. retaliation.
"If they use chemical weapons, they are going to pay a very, very stiff price," he told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday.
Mattis said he personally reviewed the intelligence and concluded there was "no doubt" that the Assad government was responsible for the April 4 chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun. But he could not say whether the Russian government played a role in the incident.
"It was very clear the Assad regime planned it, orchestrated it, and executed it," he said. "Beyond that, we can't say right now."
Earlier in the day, White House officials told reporters Russia was engaged in a "disinformation campaign" over Syria's chemical attack, but stopped short of saying that the Kremlin knew of it in advance. Russian military forces were deployed at the Shayrat airfield in western Syria, from which the chemical attack was launched.
Two days later, U.S. warships rained dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles on the base.
"This military action demonstrates the United States will not passively stand by while Assad blithely ignores international law and employs chemical weapons he had declared destroyed," Mattis said, appearing alongside Gen Joseph Votel, top U.S. commander in the Middle East.
U.S. military radar and surveillance systems picked up a Syrian Su-22 attack aircraft's launch from Shayrat before dawn on April 4. It then flew 75 miles to the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikoun, according to several U.S. officials who weren't authorized to speak publicly on the intelligence.
At 6:55 a.m., the U.S. military saw the jet drop a bomb over the town before returning to Shayrat. Within minutes, images began appearing on social media depicting lifeless victims, many of them children, shivering and gasping for air.
The closest hospital, located several miles away, quickly filled with patients as trucks arrived loaded with victims. U.S. systems detected a small Russian drone flying above the hospital about five hours later. Shortly thereafter, a Russian-made attack jet dropped a bomb on the hospital.
The Pentagon has launched an investigation into whether that aircraft belonged to Russian or Syrian forces.
The Russian military, which has helicopters and troops at Shayrat, was notified ahead of time that the cruise missile strikes were coming. The U.S. missiles hit various targets at the base, destroying 23 Syrian aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, fuel storage, ammunition supply bunkers, and advanced Russian-made radars and surface-to-air missile systems.
Russian aircraft and facilities, located on the north end of the base, were deliberately not targeted, Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, has said.
The Pentagon also avoided hitting a suspected chemical facility at Shayrat, officials said, because they didn't want to risk dispersing toxic material. However, intelligence officers acknowledged they did not know whether nerve agents were stored there, or in what amounts.
U.S. officials say it is hard to believe that the Russians did not know about the presence of chemical stores because they work alongside Syrian forces at the airfield.
