LIMA, Peru - Canada stood behind its closest allies on Friday as the U.S., Britain and France launched airstrikes against Syria's government in retaliation for a suspected chemical-weapons attack that killed dozens of people.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced the strikes in a national address, and promised Washington was prepared to "sustain" pressure on the Syrian government until it stopped killing its own people with banned weapons.
Reporters on the ground in Damascus reported loud explosions and heavy smoke filling the sky over Syria's capital after missiles slammed into what the U.S. claimed were suspected chemical-weapon sites.
Syrian television said the attacks targeted a scientific research centre in Barzeh, near Damascus, and an army depot near Homs.
Shortly after the strikes, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement condemning the use of chemical weapons in eastern Ghouta, where more than 40 people were killed and 500 injured — many of them children — on April 7.
"Canada supports the decision by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France to take action to degrade the Assad regime's ability to launch chemical weapons attacks against its own people," Trudeau said.
Trudeau went on to promise that Canada would "continue to work with our international partners to further investigate the use of chemical weapons in Syria," adding: "Those responsible must be brought to justice."
The prime minister is currently attending the Summit of the Americas in Peru, and was at a reception with U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence shortly before the news broke that the U.S. was preparing to launch strikes.
He had previously ruled out any Canadian involvement in a military strike, though a senior government official said Canada "was in the loop" before the attacks against Syria were launched.
The question of who is responsible for the chemical attack on the rebel-held enclave near Damascus, the second such attack in the past year, has become a central issue.
The Syrian government has denied responsibility for the attack while Russia has suggested Israel or Britain was to blame, the latter to justify increased western intervention into the country.
But Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas on Friday that Canada laid the blame squarely with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as well as his Russian and Iranian supporters.
"When it comes to this use of chemical weapons, it is clear to Canada that chemical weapons were used and that they were used by the Assad regime," Freeland said.
