Reuters
BEIRUT — Syrian armed forces on Sunday unleashed airstrikes against rebels and shelled what rescue workers said were civilian homes, as President Bashar al-Assad sought to demonstrate his regime’s continued strength a day after a U.S.-led missile attack.
The American, French and British barrage of missiles on Saturday destroyed much of Syria’s chemical-weapons capabilities, U.S. Defense Department officials said, but left Assad’s conventional military intact. American officials said the strikes were retaliation for a suspected regime attack with chlorine and nerve gas on Eastern Ghouta near Damascus on April 7 but weren’t designed to topple Assad or change the course of a war tilting in his favor.
Since the Western attack early Saturday morning local time, Assad’s regime tried to show that the country was going about its business normally. A nine-second video purportedly showing Assad walking into work, briefcase in hand, was posted on his Twitter account, garnering over 1 million views.
Regime planes conducted at least 28 strikes in the countryside of Homs and Hama followed by artillery shelling, including on civilian areas, the White Helmets rescue group said on Sunday. On Saturday, the regime took full control of Douma, the scene of the suspected chemical-weapons attack and the last rebel-held pocket of Eastern Ghouta, which had been under siege for five years.
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