*ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan welcomed US, British and Frenchforces’ airstrikes on Syria, saying that the operation sent a message toSyrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad.*

“With the joint operation by US, U.K. and France on Saturday, the Syrianregime received the message that its massacres wouldn’t be leftunanswered,” Erdogan told his ruling AK Party supporters in an Istanbulmeeting.

“The innocent Syrian people should have been defended long ago,” Erdoganadded.

The United States, France and Britain said they launched the air strikesagainst Syrian government military installations in response to a suspectedchemical weapons attack by the regime a week ago — a claim dismissed byDamascus and its allies Russia and Iran.

Moments after President Donald Trump finished his address on Friday night,reports emerged of explosions in Damascus at about 2am BST. A Pentagonbriefing later confirmed three sites were hit: two in Damascus and one inHoms. The sites were all regarded as linked to the storage, or testing, ofchemical weapons. Syrian air defences responded to the strikes but the USsaid it had suffered no losses in the initial airstrikes.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has described the strikes as an “actof aggression” and said the attack would worsen the humanitarian crisis inSyria. Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the US, said “suchactions will not be left without consequences” and that Moscow was beingthreatened.

Trump said the attack in Douma a week ago represented “a significantescalation in a pattern of chemical weapons use” by the Assad regime,adding: “We are prepared to sustain this response until the Syrian regimestops its use of prohibited chemical agents.” – APP /AFP