WASHINGTON, April 11. /TASS/. Americans narrowly support the recent US missile attack on Syria, a poll conducted by the Washington Post and ABC shows. At the same time, according to the survey’s results, the American people do not want new strikes.
The poll, involving 900 adults from across the country, indicates that 51% of respondents support the April 7 missile attack on Syria’s Shayrat air base while 40% do not approve of it. Among Republicans, 86% of those polled expressed support while 11 opposed the attack. As for Democrats, 59% were against the strike with 37% supporting it.
At the same time, as many as 54% of the poll’s participants said they did not want new US military operations against the Syrian government, however, 35% of those polled showed willingness to support additional strikes. The Washington Post’s publication on the survey’s results was accompanied by photos which showed protesters holding posters reading "Stop the war in Syria," "Syria’s blood on Washington’s hands," "Hands off Syria," "Money for jobs, schools and healthcare, not war in Syria."
The poll also finds that after the April 7 attack, confidence in Trump’s leadership did not change much as 25% of those surveyed said they were more confident, 28% pointed out that they had become less confident while 43% said it made no difference for them.
On April 7, US President Donald Trump ordered a strike on Syria’s Shayrat military air base located in the Homs Governorate. The attack, involving 59 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAM), came as a response to the alleged use of chemical weapons in the Idlib Governorate on April 4. The US authorities believe that the airstrike on Idlib was launched from the Shayrat air base.
The Syrian military denied its involvement in the attack. Russia’s Defense Ministry said that on April 4, the Syrian air force had delivered an airstrike on the eastern outskirts of the town of Khan Shaykhun to destroy militant facilities used to produce chemical bombs. These bombs were sent to Iraq and were previously used in Aleppo.
Russia strongly opposed the US missile strike. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow considered the attack to be an act of aggression against a sovereign state. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in turn, said that the aggression was carried out under a false pretext.