In his first turn briefing the press at the Pentagon as Defense Secretary, Jim Mattis said the recent retaliatory strike against Syria for its use of chemical weapons on civilians is independent of the military’s primary goal of destroying the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The April 6 launch of 59 Raytheon [RTN]-built Tomahawk land-attack missiles heavily damaged the Syrian airfield identified by U.S. intelligence as the one from which the gas attack was launched, Mattis said at the April 11 press conference. The missiles struck 57 of 59 targets identified at the airfield and destroyed at least 20 aircraft.
“The Syrian air force is not in good shape. It’s been worn down by years of combat plus significant maintenance problems,” Mattis said at the briefing, sat at a table next to U.S. Central Command chief Army Gen. Joseph Votel. “That damage to the Syrian air force was pretty severe.”
“I trust he regrets it now, considering the damage done to his air force,” Mattis said of Syrian President Bashar al Assad. “When I say he should think long and hard about it, I’ll just let the mission speak for itself.”
Mattis said that U.S. intelligence has determined without doubt that Assad has used chemical weapons against both civilians and combatants over the previous several years of civil war. Any use of chemical weapons violates the Geneva protocol of 1925 prohibiting the use in war of gas or biological agents in warfare. Syria is a signatory to that convention.
“Chemical weapons are chemical weapons. That is the issue if you’re talking about the strike we took,” Mattis said. “It’s not about whether it’s delivered with an artillery shell or it’s delivered by a helicopter with a barrel bomb or a fighter aircraft with a bomb. It’s about chemical weapons. And we’ve made it clear where we stand on that.”
The U.S. military’s primary focus remains aiding Iraqi and other coalition partners in rolling back and ultimately destroying ISIS, which Mattis also referred to as ISIL. The recent strike against the Syrian military was a “separate issue” of enforcing international norms of war that could be repeated if Assad chooses to again use chemical weapons, he said.
“The goal right now in Syria, of the military campaign, is … destroying ISIS in Syria,” Mattis said. “This was a separate issue that arose in the midst of that campaign. … We addressed that militarily.”
Meanwhile, “the rest of the campaign stays on track exactly as it was before Assad’s violations,” he added. The Trump administration is expected to deliver a comprehensive plan for the military defeat of ISIS within a few months. The details of that plan are developing slowly but surely, Mattis said.
“The counter-ISIL plan has been put in skeleton form and is being fleshed out now,” Mattis said. “This has got to be done in a methodical way where we look at each element of it.”
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently met with more than 60 of his counterparts from nations participating in the counter-ISIS coalition. They are working on a political plan for both Iraq and Syria following the cessation of hostilities and the downfall of ISIS, he said.
“They are working on the stabilization efforts in Syria,” Mattis said. “This is not the United States working alone. [It is] a very, very complex security situation and it’s one that we are going to have to address in a very methodical manner. It’s not something you can simply add water to and rehydrate and it’s suddenly a full-fledged plan.”
“This is hard work and it’s going to take time,” Mattis added.
“The campaign plan remains where we thought it would be at this particular point,” Votel said. “We anticipated the fighting would be difficult at this particular part of it and I think that’s exactly what we’re seeing. I certainly won’t put a timeline on this.”