By ISW Syria Team and Syria Direct
U.S. President
Donald Trump demonstrated a new willingness to use force against the regime after
conducting cruise missile strike targeting the Shayrat Airbase in Central Syria
on April 6. The strikes came in response to the regime’s use of sarin gas against
the opposition-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in Northern Syria on April 4 that
marked one of its deadliest chemical weapons attacks since the 2013 Sarin
Attacks in Damascus. The U.S. attempted to leverage its limited strikes against
the regime to force Russia to reveal the extent of its commitment to Iran and
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Kremlin rejected calls to distance itself
from Assad after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 13. Russia
also vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution outlining an investigation
into the regime’s culpability for chemical weapons attacks. The White House
nonetheless also messaged continuity in its military stance towards the Syrian
Civil War. Tillerson noted in an interview on April 11 that the “first
priority” remains the defeat of ISIS in Syria and warned against “violent
regime change” similar to Libya. U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis also stated
that the “military policy in Syria has not changed” and stressed that the “rest
of the campaign stays on track…exactly as it was before” the chemical weapons
attack.
These graphics mark the latest installment of our Syria SITREP Map made possible through a partnership between the Institute for the Study of War and Syria Direct. The graphic depicts significant recent developments in the Syrian Civil War. The control of terrain represented on the graphic is accurate as of April 3, 2017.
