According to Fox News, USS John Warner dove and stood ready to counter any potential response from Russian warships. The Virginia-class submarine, used for the first time in combat during the 2018 strike, was prepared to respond to Russia’s potential actions against US ships deployed in the area, including the one that was acting as a decoy and did not launch any missiles into Syria, the broadcaster claimed.
The article compared the Trump-authorised airstrikes with the Thursday attack against facilities used by Iran-backed militias in eastern Syria ordered by sitting US President Joe Biden.
The broadcaster said that Tomahawk missiles were not used during the Thursday strike which was a warning to Iran, and the bombed area was not controlled by the Syrian government for years. According to Fox News, the fighters that were killed in eastern Syria on Thursday were most likely not Syrian nationals.
At the same time, the Trump administration's airstrikes targeted facilities belonging to the Syrian government. The broadcaster mentioned that over 50 Tomahawk missiles were launched at a Syrian airbase in April 2017.
In April 2018, then-US President Donald Trump approved the launch of Tomahawk cruise missiles to destroy what Washington claims were chemical weapons laboratories belonging to the Syrian government.
The area which was bombed on Thursday was also attacked when Trump was in power. In December 2019, the former US president approved to launch airstrikes against militants in eastern Syria and western Iraq.
