Trump wanted Bashar Assad assassinated after chemical attack

President Donald Trump wanted to have Syrian President Bashar Assad assassinated last year after a chemical attack on civilians, according to a new book.

The revelation appears in excerpts of the book “Fear”, written by famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, which were published in the Washington Post. According to the book, Trump told Defence Secretary Jim Mattis that he wanted to have the Syrian president killed after the chemical weapons attack in April 2017.

The strike on Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province killed dozens of civilians and the footage of poisoned children struggling to breathe shocked the world. Mattis told Trump he would “get right on it,” but instead developed a plan for an air strike that did not threaten Assad personally, the book claims.

A few days after the chemical attack, the US carried out a missile strike against a Syrian regime airbase. It marked the first time the White House had ordered direct military action against Assad’s forces in the then six year war