WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says the United States has “launched precision strikes” on targets associated with Syrian chemical weapons program.

Trump spoke from the White House Friday night. He says a “combined operation” with France and the United Kingdom is underway.

Trump says that last Saturday, Syrian President Bashar Assad deployed chemical weapons in what was a “significant escalation in a pattern of chemical weapons use by that very terrible regime.”

The announcement comes just hours after U.S. Navy moved additional Tomahawk missile-armed ship within striking range of Syria as Trump and his national security aides mulled the scope and timing of an expected military assault in retaliation for a suspected poison gas attack.

The Rock River Times will have more on this story as it develops.

–Associated Press