The Assad regime has used chemical weapons in the conflict in Syria.
On Monday, Col. John J. Thomas, a USA military spokesman, said the US has taken extra defensive precautions in Syria in case of possible retaliation against American forces for the cruise missile attack.
At the two-day meeting, which started on Monday in Lucca, central Italy, the leaders of the United States and Britain expressed their intention to incorporate additional sanctions against Russian Federation for supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime in a joint statement to be adopted by the G-7 leaders on Tuesday.
"The goal of this attack was singular", said Mattis, who stressed that the US's main objective in Syria remains focused on destroying ISIS.
Johnson put a positive spin on the outcome, saying there could still be sanctions on Russian military officers if an independent investigation into the chemical attack identifies perpetrators.
The allegation of Russian foreknowledge is grave, even by the standards of the now dismal U.S.
Co-leaders Rose, Garcia tee off at the
Garcia triumphed in his 74th major start, going back to his teenage days when he almost won the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah. His second shot, an 8-iron from 192 yards out, almost flew into the hole and left him 14 feet away from a 3.
Citing an anonymous senior US official, the Associated Press reported Monday that the United States concluded Russian Federation knew in advance of the attack. In a round of television interviews that aired Sunday, though, Tillerson said the top US priority in the region remains the defeat of Islamic State militants. The official said it still isn't clear who was flying the jet that bombed the hospital, because the Syrians also fly Russian-made aircraft.
"But the official said the presence of the surveillance drone over the hospital couldn't have been a coincidence, and that Russian Federation must have known the chemical weapons attack was coming and that victims were seeking treatment".
He said: "We have information from various sources that such provocations - I can not call them otherwise - are being prepared in other regions of Syria, including in the southern outskirts of Damascus, where they are again planning to throw some kind of substance and accuse Syrian official authorities of using it".
Last Thursday 59 Tomahawk missiles were fired on the government-controlled base in the United States' first direct military action against Assad's forces.
"Not everyone may like it, but without Moscow and without Tehran there will be no solution for Syria", he said. But Tillerson also said that the top US priority in the region remains the defeat of Islamic State militants.
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