Meanwhile, the Syrian air force has already resumed bombing the northwestern town of Khan Sheikhoun — the very same area the regime gassed last week. A few thousand Russian military personnel are distributed across Syria’s key military bases. Moscow has also placed some of the world’s most sophisticated air defence systems in Syria, and Russian planes police Syrian skies. There are also significant escalation risks even if the Trump administration doesn’t go down this path and sticks to the narrower stated objective of deterring further chemical attacks. According to news reports, before Thursday’s strikes, Trump was briefed on a number of options to retaliate against Assad.

Source: National Post April 10, 2017 15:56 UTC