WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says a Russian "disinformation campaign" has already begun over the U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria.
Chief Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said Saturday that "there has been a 2,000 percent increase in Russian trolls in the past 24 hours."
The U.S., Britain and France said they launched Saturday's strike to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad for a suspected chemical attack against civilians in the town of Douma outside Damascus. Opposition leaders and rescuers say more than 40 people, including many women and children, died in the suspected chemical attack.
Russia's Foreign Ministry says the attack was an attempt to derail an investigation into a purported chemical attack. The Foreign Ministry says facts presented by Russian investigators indicated that the purported attack was a "premeditated and cynical sham."
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The Pentagon says they believe the airstrikes "attacked the heart of the Syrian chemical weapons program."
Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, says the U.S.-led airstrikes against Syria has been "a very serious blow."
The U.S., France and Britain launched military strikes on Saturday morning in Syria to punish President Bashar Assad (bah-SHAR' AH'-sahd) for an apparent chemical attack against civilians last week and to deter him from doing it again.
Chief Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White says the target choices were "very methodical," calling it a "deliberate decision" to go after chemical weapons facilities. She says the U.S. was confident that they had "significantly degraded his ability to use chemical weapons ever again."
