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ABC News: What's changed 1 year after US missile strikes in Syria
Exactly one year ago, on April 6, 2017, between 8:40 and 8:50 p.m. EDT, 59 U.S. Tomahawk missiles rained down on a Syrian airbase.
The missiles -- launched from U.S. Navy destroyers in the Mediterranean Sea -- were the Trump administration's direct response to a Syrian sarin gas attack the U.S. says was perpetrated by Syria's President Bashar al-Assad days earlier that killed more than 100 Syrian men, women, and children.
President Donald Trump said the strike was in the “vital national security interests” of the U.S. -- a massive response meant to send a message to Assad never to use chemical weapons on his own people ever again. Assad has always denied using them.
A year later, in its push to retake rebel-held areas in western Syria, the Assad regime has continued to bomb and unleash chemical weapons the U.S. says, but the Trump administration has not been nearly as vocal in its criticism as it was after the attack on Khan Sheikhoun.
Meanwhile, the Assad regime finds itself in a stronger position militarily in western Syria with help from Iranian and Russian forces. On the opposite side of the country, American-backed Kurdish and Arab forces are on the verge of defeating ISIS on the battlefield.
But what comes next after an ISIS defeat?
Read more ....
WNU Editor: There were many reasons why President Obama originally ordered U.S. forces to enter Syria and why President Trump made the decision to continue with the policy .... but the primary reason has always remained the same .... the defeat of the Islamic State. What has changed since that April 6, 2017 missile barrage .... a lot. The Islamic State has lost its caliphate, the Syrian rebels have been defeated with the exception of their stronghold in Idlib Province, and there are now many countries directly involved in the Syrian conflict .... the U.S. included. As for the upcoming year .... your guess is as good as mine on what will be the state of affairs in Syria in 2019.