Missiles Strike Air Base in Syria After Chemical Weapons Attack

At least 14 military personnel were killed in the strike, including three Syrian commanders and several Iranians who were housed at the base, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Russian Defense Ministry said two Israeli F-15 fighter jets had carried out the strike with eight guided missiles from Lebanese air space, state news agency RIA Novosti reported, while pro-regime Syrian media said some 20 missiles were fired. Pro-regime Syrian media said the direction of the strikes indicated Israel might be behind the attack.

The Israeli army declined to comment, in line with its policy of neither confirming nor denying airstrikes in Syria.

The attack comes a day after world leaders condemned an alleged chemical-weapons attack late Saturday on civilians in a rebel-held town in Eastern Ghouta outside Damascus. President

Donald Trump

said Syria would pay “a big price” for the alleged attack and vowed Sunday a “strong, joint response” with his French counterpart,

Emmanuel Macron.

It wasn’t clear whether Monday’s strikes were a direct response to the chemical attack. Pentagon officials said the U.S. hadn’t launched any strikes against Syria.

But the T-4 air base, also known as Tiyas, isn’t a chemical weapons facility and Israel has accused the Syrian regime of allowing Iran to set up a base there to supply the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militia with weapons. That suggests that the Israelis used the opportunity to strike amid global outrage over the Syrian regime’s chemical attack on civilians, analysts say.

An official at Iran’s United Nations mission didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Iran’s presence at the base or possible Iranian casualties. Iran has denied trying to set up military bases in Syria but also has said it would remain in the country as long as Syrian President

Bashar al-Assad

requires an Iranian presence.

Israel for years largely stayed neutral in the Syrian war, launching airstrikes only against weapons convoys bound from Iran to Hezbollah. But backed by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, Mr. Assad is emerging victorious in his country’s civil war and Israel fears Tehran will establish weapons factories and military sites in Syria to attack Israeli territory.

Israeli Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu’s

posture has shifted in recent months and his air force has repeatedly hit sites in Syria, raising the prospects of a wider regional war.

Current and former Israeli officials didn’t acknowledge responsibility for the strike but many publicly supported the move, with some calling for Mr. Assad’s removal.

“We have clear interests in Syria and we set red lines,” Yoav Galant, construction minister and a member of Israel’s security cabinet, told the national broadcaster Kann. “We will not allow weapons to be transferred from Syria to Lebanon and we will not allow an Iranian entrenchment.”

“It’s pretty clear who attacked,” Retired Maj. Gen. Amiram Levin, former head of the Israeli military’s northern command, told Army Radio. “We must make one hand [with the U.S.], perhaps also the Europeans, and remove Assad from power in Syria.”

Israeli officials had earlier reacted negatively to the chemical attack in Syria. Defense Minister

Avigdor Lieberman

on Sunday warned that Israel would have to act alone in the Middle East, given the signs in recent weeks that Mr. Trump aimed to pull U.S. troops from the Syrian conflict.

Syrian media said loud explosions were heard in Homs after jets entered Syria from Lebanon. Footage on social media early Monday appeared to show planes crossing loudly through the airspace of Lebanon. Lebanese officials weren’t immediately available for comment.

Amos Yadlin,

former head of Israeli military intelligence and an air force general, said he couldn’t confirm the Syrian strike was conducted by Israel. But, if it was, he said the strike would have achieved two goals.

“On the one hand you cope with the Iranian activity in Syria,” Mr. Yadlin said in an interview. “And it’s a very important message against using chemical weapons.”

Mr. Yadlin, who is now executive director at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, said the T-4 base wasn’t a chemical weapons facility or a site used to mount chemical weapons attacks. But it was definitely an Iranian-related base, he said.

Some missiles hit the maintenance section of the base, damaging a number of drones, Syrian pro-regime media reported.

Israel in February said the site targeted Monday was an air base operated by Iran and its proxies, after the Israeli army shot down an Iranian drone that it said had originated at the base.

It then launched major airstrikes on targets in Syria, drawing antiaircraft fire from Syrian batteries that in turn shot down an Israeli fighter jet.

The downed jet was the first time in more than 30 years that Israel has lost a fighter aircraft, and heightened concerns that the Israeli military would be drawn into Syria’s protracted conflict.

Israel in September also targeted a facility in Syria that was believed to be a factory where the regime produced chemical weapons, according to former Israeli officials.

The U.S. blacklisted 271 employees of that facility, the Scientific Studies and Research Center located near Masyaf, after a sarin gas attack in April last year that killed nearly 100 people, many of them women and children.

— Nour Al Akraa, Dov Lieber, Asa Fitch, James Marson and Dion Nissenbaum contributed to this article.

Corrections Amplifications
It wasn’t clear whether Monday’s strikes were a direct response to the chemical attack. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the strikes were on Sunday. (April 9)

Write to Sune Engel Rasmussen at sune.rasmussen@wsj.com and Rory Jones at rory.jones@wsj.com

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Donald Trump vows friendship with China

WASHINGTON — President Trump vowed friendship with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Sunday despite their trade differences, as the U.S. president and his aides sought to tamp down market fears of a trade war between between the two economic giants.

“President Xi and I will always be friends, no matter what happens with our dispute on trade,” Trump said in a tweet in which he also predicted that the U.S. would prevail and reach agreements with China on trade issues.

“China will take down its Trade Barriers because it is the right thing to do,” Trump said. “Taxes will become Reciprocal a deal will be made on Intellectual Property. Great future for both countries!”

Trump has also said the ongoing trade dispute may generate “a little pain” in the short term, including big losses on Wall Street.

More: Trump says there may be ‘a little pain’ as U.S. and China trade tariff threats

More: Dow falls 572 points as Donald Trump and China issue fresh tariff threats as trade war looms

China has denied American accusations of unfair trade practices and vowed to retaliate if the U.S. follows through on plans to put tariffs on Chinese goods, claims that have roiled global markets over fears that prices will rise and demand will slow worldwide.

In addition to threatening penalties on American goods, China has also asked the business community in the United States and elsewhere to protest the planned Trump tariffs.

“We call on the international business community including the United States industrial and commercial circles to take prompt and effective measures and urge the U.S. government to correct its errors,” said state newspaper People’s Daily.

President Xi and I will always be friends, no matter what happens with our dispute on trade. China will take down its Trade Barriers because it is the right thing to do. Taxes will become Reciprocal a deal will be made on Intellectual Property. Great future for both countries!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018

As Trump tweeted, aides hit the Sunday news shows to downplay fears of a trade war with China.

Larry Kudlow, the new director of the National Economic Council, said the tariff threats are part of a negotiating tactic designed to pressure China to end unfair trade practices. Kudlow said tariffs have only been proposed, and are currently undergoing a public preview process; no final decisions have been made.

“It’s a long process,” Kudlow told Fox News Sunday. “So far, no tariffs and no action have been enacted.”

While calling China’s response “highly unsatisfactory” so far, Kudlow also said, “we’re not going to end up in a trade war.”

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told NBC’s Meet The Press that ”we’re moving forward in a measured way.”

While White House officials have offered similar re-assurances in recent weeks, new threats and counter-threats have increased fears; the Dow Jones industrial average fell 572 points on Friday.

The administration’s threats toward China have made markets apprehensive.

U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., told Fox News Sunday he doesn’t oppose tariffs on China, but Trump’s approach looks like “chaos,” and has “left a lot of Americans with uncertainty.”

The China trade issues should be handled in “a much more calculated way,” Crowley said.

The United States and China have long criticized each other over trade, but the stakes have grown over the past month.

The latest round began March 22 when the Trump administration announced plans for tariffs of up to $50-$60 billion in goods from China, in response to what it called Chinese theft of U.S. trade secrets, including state-of-the-art technology.

Hours later, China responded with plans for up to $3 billion of tariffs on U.S. goods.

Last week, the U.S. vowed to target Chinese-made medical devices, aircraft parts and flat-screen televisions with up to $50 billion in tariffs; China responded with a $50 billion threat on American products that include soybeans, small aircraft, and orange juice, a list that seemed designed to target states that supported Trump in the 2016 presidential election and would be important in a 2020 re-election bid.

Hours later, Trump ordered his administration to consider $100 billion in new tariffs in response to Chinese retaliation.

The United States hasn’t had a Trade Surplus with China in 40 years. They must end unfair trade, take down barriers and charge only Reciprocal Tariffs. The U.S. is losing $500 Billion a year, and has been losing Billions of Dollars for decades. Cannot continue!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2018

In another tweet on Saturday, Trump again claimed unfair Chinese trade practices.

“The United States hasn’t had a Trade Surplus with China in 40 years,” the president said. “They must end unfair trade, take down barriers and charge only Reciprocal Tariffs. The U.S. is losing $500 Billion a year, and has been losing Billions of Dollars for decades. Cannot continue!”

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