Trump says ‘big price to pay’ for Syria chemical attack

U.S. President Donald Trump said there would be a “big price to pay” for a chemical attack against a besieged rebel-held town in Syria where medical aid groups reported dozens of people were killed by poison gas.

The Syrian state denied government forces had launched any chemical attack and Russia, President Bashar al-Assad’s most powerful ally, called the reports bogus.

A joint statement by the medical relief organization Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) and the civil defense service, which operates in rebel-held areas, said 49 people had died in the attack late on Saturday in the town of Douma. Others put the toll even higher.

“Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

The Russian Foreign Ministry warned against any military action on the basis of “invented and fabricated excuses”, saying this could lead to severe consequences.

The United States launched a cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base last year in response to a sarin gas attack in northwestern Syria blamed on Assad.

One of Trump’s top homeland security advisers said on Sunday the United States would not rule out launching another missile attack. “I wouldn’t take anything off the table,” White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser Thomas Bossert said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

Source: Trump says ‘big price to pay’ for Syria chemical attack