President Donald Trump has promised a decision within 24 to 48 hours on how the U.S. will respond to the latest attack against civilians in Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a White House meeting on Monday, Trump condemned the attack as \u201catrocious\u201d and \u201chorrible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is about humanity, and it can\u2019t be allowed to happen,\u201d Trump said, according to remarks released through a media pool report. \u201cIf it\u2019s the Russians, if it\u2019s Syria, if it\u2019s Iran, if it\u2019s all of them together, we\u2019ll figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also on Monday, during a separate meeting with the Qatari defense minister, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis<\/a> said he won\u2019t rule out striking Syrian President Bashar al-Assad\u2019s forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t rule out anything right now,\u201d Mattis responded when asked by reporters if the U.S. military would launch airstrikes against Assad\u2019s chemical weapons facilities<\/a>, following an alleged use of the deadly weapons by Assad\u2019s forces. \u201cThe first thing we have to look at is why are chemical weapons still being used at all, when Russia was the framework guarantor of removing all the chemical weapons,\u201d Mattis said. \u201cAnd so, working with our allies and our partners from NATO to Qatar and elsewhere, we are going to address this issue.\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n\n\n\n Amid the tough talk from the White House, the U.S. military appeared to be in position to carry out any attack order. A Navy destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, was underway in the eastern Mediterranean after completing a port call in Cyprus. The guided missile destroyer is armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles, the weapon of choice in a U.S. attack one year ago on an airfield in Syria following an alleged sarin gas attack on civilians.<\/font><\/p>\n\n\n\n On Saturday, a chemical weapons attack<\/a> in the formerly rebel-held town of Douma, Syria, allegedly killed dozens of civilians, according to multiple news reports. One video, recorded by the White Helmets, a group of rescue workers, shows men, women and children lying lifeless in a living quarters, some with foam coming from their mouths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Twitter, President Donald Trump responded to the chemical weapons attack report by saying that the “Animal Assad<\/a>” would have a “big price to pay” for the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Syria and Russia have reached an evacuation deal with the Jaish al-Islam rebels, who up until now had been holding the city of Douma, according to the BBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So far, Russian and Syrian officials have denied the allegations of chemical weapons use. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that there is no evidence of a chemical weapons attack in Douma, the Russian state-run TASS news agency<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\t
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