The Pentagon is expanding its list of feasible Syria targets and may conduct airstrikes with France in addition to firing cruise missiles, officials said, reported by UPI.
President Obama, currently at the Group of 20 summit in Russia, ordered the target expansion as part of his desire to beef up the “degrade” part of the administration’s stated goal to “deter and degrade” the Assad regime’s ability to use chemical weapons with a military strike, The New York Times reported.
Obama said at the White House Tuesday his planned military action would give the United States “the ability to degrade Assad’s capabilities when it comes to chemical weapons.
“It also fits into a broader strategy that we have to make sure that we can bring about, over time, the kind of strengthening of the opposition and the diplomatic and economic and political pressure required, so that ultimately we have a transition that can bring peace and stability, not only to Syria but to the region,” he said.
The Pentagon’s expanded list would go beyond the 50 or so major sites already on a target list developed with French forces before Obama delayed action Saturday to seek congressional approval of his plan, the Times said.
France is one of the few Western allies supporting a strike.
President Francois Hollande said he hoped to get European leaders to coalesce around a summit statement Friday denouncing the Assad regime over chemical weapons.
The administration is considering possibly using U.S. and French bombers to conduct airstrikes in addition to the firing of ship-based Tomahawk cruise missiles called for in the original plan, the Times said.
Officials are also stepping up efforts to get other NATO forces involved, the newspaper said.
The strikes would not target Syria’s chemical stockpiles — that would risk a potential catastrophe, military officials told the Times. Instead, the strikes would target the military units responsible for storing and preparing the chemical weapons and carrying out the attacks against Syrian rebels, the officials said.
They would also target the headquarters overseeing the effort and the rockets and artillery that launched the attacks, the officials told the newspaper.
Administration officials say they know they face competing requirements in Washington and in Syria — they’ll have to accept restrictions on the military response to win Capitol Hill support and they’ll need to expand and strengthen the strike to make it meaningful.
“They are being pulled in two different directions,” a senior foreign official involved in the discussions told the Times Thursday.
“The worst outcome would be to come out of this bruising battle with Congress and conduct a military action that made little difference,” the official said.
Officials said the increased U.S. action would still be limited.
“Think incremental increase, not exponential,” an official told the newspaper.
