White House press secy threatened to massively escalate the war in Syria

WASHINGTON (92 News) – White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday that the Trump administration will respond if the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad uses barrel bombs against his own people.

Addressing a press conference in Washington, the White House press secretary said: "If you gas a baby, if you put a barrel bombing to innocent people, I think you can see a response from this president."

When asked what President Trump’s “red line” is in Syria, Spicer laid out two scenarios that would prompt another military action like the missile strike last week. “I think the president has made it very clear that there were a number of lines that were crossed last week. I think not just Syria but the world saw last week is a president that is going to act decisively and proportionately and with justification when it comes to actions like that,” the press secretary explained. “And I will tell you, the answer is if you gas a baby, if you put a barrel bomb into innocent people, I think you will see a response from this president.”

Spicer said the use of the crude, unguided explosives, would cross a line for Trump, who last week authorized cruise missile strikes on a Syrian base after the regime used chemical weapons on its own people.

The shifting US stance on Syria comes a week after President Donald Trump ordered a strike on Shayrat airfield and nearby Syrian military infrastructure in response to a chemical attack attributed to the Assad regime that killed at least 80 people in northwestern Syria.

Sarin gas was thought to have been used in that attack, but the White House has now suggested that lesser weapons might also provoke military action from the US.