Syrian students protest US missile attack on army airfield

Hundreds of Syrian students have held a demonstration in the capital, Damascus, to voice their outrage at Washington’s recent missile strikes against a Syrian army air base widely condemned as an act of aggression.

The protesters gathered outside the United Nations office in Damascus’ Mezzeh municipality on Friday to express their support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and denounce the US attack that killed 15 people, including civilians.

US warships in the eastern Mediterranean launched a barrage of 59 Tomahawk missiles against Shayrat Airfield in Syria’s Homs Province on April 7.

US President Donald Trump said the assault was prompted by a chemical attack on the town of Khan Shaykhun in Syria’s Idlib Province on April 4 which killed over 80 civilians.

Washington held Damascus responsible for the gas attack without providing any evidence, but Syria categorically denied the accusation and stressed that its Idlib airstrike had targeted a depot, where terrorists stored chemical weapons.

Waving Syria’s national flag and holding pictures of President Assad, the demonstrators chanted slogans such as "Death to America, death to Israel!"

The students attending Tuesday’s event also held placards reading, “Iraq will not happen again, this is Assad's Syria," and "Trump supports terrorism."

Ayyad Talab, the head of the university students' branch in the National Syrian Students Union, said the protesters had turned out “to denounce the American strike," adding, "We want to say that we are ready to defend our country, armed with our work, our minds, and our ideas and with our souls if necessary.”

The union further submitted a letter to the UN office over the US raid. The letter will be forwarded to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

"We came to condemn the American aggression on our country. We consider it a disgrace to the democracy that America claims," demonstrator Mahmoud Issa told AFP.

‘Militants transferring toxic chemicals to Syria areas’

Separately on Tuesday, Colonel General Sergei Rudskoi, the head of the Russian General Staff’s Main Operations Department, warned that militants were transferring toxic chemicals to several areas across Syria in a bid to provoke new US attacks.

"According to our information, militants have been bringing poisonous substances to the Khan Shaykhun area, the Jirah airport, Eastern Ghouta and the western outskirts of Aleppo," Rudskoi said.

The militants “aim to create another pretext for accusing the Syrian government of using chemical weapons and provoke new US strikes on Syria," he further pointed out.

The Russian official also called for an investigation into the reported gas attack in Khan Shaykhun.

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