Damascus, Syria: Hours before dawn, a string of powerful blasts jolted awake residents of the Syrian capital.
Emerging onto their balconies, they watched Western strikes light up the sky over Damascus.
For around 45 minutes, explosions and the sound of warplanes roared over Damascus, a stronghold of Syria’s regime, as the US, France, and Britain carried out raids on military installations nearby and in the province of Homs.
READ: US and allies fire missiles at Syria
“I heard the strike and woke up. I checked the internet and read: barefaced attack by America, France, and Britain,” said Sawsan Abu Tableh.
She and other residents described hearing a volley of fire in the morning, and seeing
plumes of thick smoke emerging from the city’s north and east.
“I woke up to the sound of the strike at 4:00 am and checked the news,” said 49-year-old Rahmeh Abu Hamra, who lives in the eastern suburb of Jarmana.
At that moment, halfway around the world, US President Donald Trump was announcing the joint military strikes on Syria.
Abu Hamra rushed out onto her balcony and saw streams of people heading down to central Damascus in an impromptu rally as day broke.
“We don’t care about Trump or a million people like him, we don’t care about missiles or anything else,” she told AFP.
Just after the barrage of strikes began, Syria announced it was activating its air defence system to block the attack.
The army said around 110 missiles were fired on Syria, but air defences shot most of them down.
