BEIRUT // Warplanes on Saturday struck the rebel-held Syrian town where a chemical attack killed scores of people.
The attacks came as Turkey warned that the retaliatory US cruise missile strikes on a Syrian airbase would only be “cosmetic” if greater efforts were not made to remove President Bashar Al Assad from power.
The air strikes on the opposition-held northern town of Khan Sheikhoun, where 87 people perished in the chemical attack on Tuesday, killed a woman and wounded her son, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Elsewhere in Syria, US-led air strikes killed at least 21 people, including a woman and her six children who were fleeing on a boat across the Euphrates River near ISIL’s stronghold, Raqqa. The city is the target of a major offensive by US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian forces.
Near the central city of Homs, a bomb exploded aboard a bus carrying workers, killing a woman and wounding more than 20, according to state TV and the Observatory.
The chemical attack prompted the US to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles on a Syrian airbase early on Friday, killing nine people. The strikes marked the first time Washington has directly targeted Syrian government forces since the war began in 2011.
The move was welcomed by the Syrian opposition and its main backers, including Turkey and Saudi Arabia, but harshly condemned by Russia and Iran, who back Mr Al Assad.
Donald Trump spoke by telephone with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman about the strikes, the Saudi Press Agency said on Saturday. King Salman congratulated Mr Trump for his “courageous decision” which served the regional and world interest.
Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the US strike should be the start of a renewed effort to end the civil war, which has killed an estimated 400,000 people and displaced half of Syria’s population.
“If this intervention is limited only to an airbase, if it does not continue and if we don’t remove the regime from heading Syria, then this would remain a cosmetic intervention,” he said.
He said the best outcome would be a peace agreement that leads to a transitional government accepted by all Syrians, followed by elections. For that to happen, he said, “this oppressive Assad needs to go.”
Iran, which has provided crucial military and political support to Mr Al Assad, meanwhile called for a fact-finding mission to determine what caused the chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun. President Hassan Rouhani said the committee should be impartial and “must not be headed by Americans.”
Syria’s government has denied carrying out any chemical attack, and Russia’s defence ministry said the toxic agents were released when a Syrian airstrike hit a rebel chemical weapons arsenal and munitions factory.
British foreign secretary Boris Johnson cancelled a planned trip to Russia on Monday because the situation in Syria has changed “fundamentally” following the chemical attack and the US response.
Mr Johnson condemned Russia’s continued defence of Mr Al Assad “even after the chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians.”
US secretary of state Rex Tillerson meanwhile plans to meet G-7 foreign ministers in Europe next week before going on to Moscow. Mr Johnson said Mr Tillerson will be able to give a “clear and coordinated message to the Russians.”
In Damascus, dozens of Syrian students gathered outside the offices of the United Nations to protest against the US missile attack.
Elsewhere in Syria, activists opposed to ISIL said a US-led coalition airstrike hit a boat carrying civilians fleeing across the Euphrates. The groups Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently and Sound and Picture said the attack killed a woman and her six children. The attack occurred in the Shuaib Al Zeker area, near where US-backed Syrian fighters have been on the offensive against ISIL under the cover of coalition air strikes.
Activists and state media said a separate airstrike by the US-led coalition on the ISIL-held village of Hneida killed at least 14 civilians, including children. The Observatory said 15 people, including four children, were killed in the airstrike. The Sound and Picture group said the airstrike hit an internet cafe, killing 14 people.
*Associated Press