Washington: Senior Defence Department officials are developing options for a military strike in response to the Syrian government’s chemical weapons attack on Tuesday that killed dozens of civilians, officials said on Thursday in the US.
At the same time, the nation’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, said the devastating chemical weapons attack in Syria made it clear that there was “no role” for President Bashar Assad to continue governing his country, and he promised a “serious response” from the United States.
The top-level consultations about military options involve defence Secretary Jim Mattis and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as military officers at U.S. Central Command.
Officials said that developing military options for a president — a core responsibility of the Pentagon — did not mean that a decision to escalate US military involvement in Syria had been made.
Read the full article by Michael R. Gordon at The Age.