In an early morning tweet, US President Donald Trump told Russia to get prepared for “nice and new and ‘smart!’” missile attacks in Syria in response to an alleged gas attack on the last rebel stronghold Daouma of the country.
The Russian ambassador to Lebanon said during an interview on Tuesday with Hezbollah-owned al-Manar TV that “if there is a US missile attack, we – in line with both Putin and Russia’s chief of staff’s remarks – will shoot down US rockets and even the sources that launched the missiles”.
Trump responded to his comment with the early morning tweet.
Trump further slammed Russia for its continued support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Wednesday’s tweet by saying it “shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in her response to Trump’s tweet said: “Smart missiles should fly towards terrorists, not [Syria’s] lawful government, which has spent several years fighting against international terrorism on its territory.”
The warnings were exchanged after the United States and several European countries threatened to utilize military action against the Syrian government and its main ally, Russia, in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack over the rebel-held town of Douma.
According to the activists and local medics, the attack in Eastern Ghouta on Saturday has killed dozens of people with most of them being women and children.
The government of Syria and Russia denied any type of chemical attack taking place.
Some reports surfaced on Wednesday that military hardware was being moved from Syrian bases.
“We don’t have any open source information which can verify Syrian movement [of military equipment], but we are supposing this is true,” said Ruslan Leviev, a Moscow-based military researcher with Conflict Intelligence Team, a research organisation which investigates conflicts in Syria and Ukraine.
“They moved some of their equipment to Hmeimim. This is a logical step,” said Leviev.
At present, Russia operates Hmeimim airbase, located in Latakia province, where it has deployed ground troops and warplanes.
At the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, draft resolutions were proposed both by Russia and US, to set up a new expert body to probe chemical weapons attacks in Syria, but eventually failed to pass.
The US defence secretary, James Mattis, did not rule out any military action against Assad’s forces, while US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, gave a stern warning that Washington was ready to “respond” to the attack regardless of whether the Security Council acted or not.
Chairman of the defence affairs committee, Vladimir Shamanov, in Russia’s lower house of parliament told Russia’s Ria Novosti news agency on Wednesday that Russia would respond by retaliating.
“Russia has a decent weapon. If there are attempts to test it out, they will get a worthy response,” he said.
The Syrian government is ready with its forces put on “high alert” amid the looming threat of a US military response.
President Assad launched a bloody offensive on Eastern Ghouta along with Russian military assistance. The town had been under rebel control since mid-2013.
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