CBS News’ foreign correspondent Seth Doane is the only American network correspondent in Damascus as the U.S. missiles struck three sites in Syria. On Saturday, he checked out the smoldering rubble of a suspected chemical weapons facility in Damascus.
Douma, which had been in rebel hands, is now controlled by Syrian forces. That could make it easier for chemical weapons inspectors, who arrived in Damascus Saturday, to get to the site of the purported April 7 chemical attack. Those inspectors were set to begin work on Sunday.
Syria’s deputy foreign minister told us they were eager to help get inspectors to the site, though the government still claims the attack never happened.
President Bashar Assad appeared on state TV on Sunday as confident as ever, holding meetings with Russian lawmakers. He said $400 billion would be needed to restore Syria’s economy and called the coalition missile strikes “an act of aggression.”
Since the airstrikes, Syrians in government-controlled Damascus have been defiant.
“They have been attacking and conspiring against Syria for eight years, but Syria is strong,” one student said in Arabic.
In rebel-held parts of the country, they’ve argued the airstrikes did not go far enough, because Assad is still in power. His forces have been making steady gains, knocking-out opposition fighters wherever they can.
Like in Homs, north of the capital, where the White Helmets released video of victims of artillery shelling on rebel positions.
The Syrian government tells us the next crucial battle here in the capital — against ISIS, which still controls a pocket of this city.
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