A Syrian refugee working in Chicago questioned the effectiveness of the U.S. missile strikes in his war-torn homeland, and urged President Donald Trump to help those living in danger.
"This strike is four years too late," Khaled Khalaf, a baker on the city's North Side, said Friday. "They should have not -- what they are hitting now are civilians. They are hitting Homs, Aleppo and Damascus. They need to hit places where criminal activity is actually happening. Not wasting time killing civilians and adding hurt to what is already happening over there."
Khalaf left Syria in 2012 after having open heart surgery. Syria had exploded into the news in March 2011 when protest erupted in the city of Daraa. Later that month, demonstration spread around the country.
"At the time the conflict happened, there was no medicine, there were no jobs, life stopped," he said.
He watched from Chicago Thursday night as U.S. missiles were launched at a Syrian airbase thought to be the source of the chemical attacks that killed dozens last week.
The bombing represents Trump's most dramatic military order since taking office. He called on "all civilized nations" to join the U.S. in seeking an end to the carnage in Syria.
Civil rights groups have been careful in how they describe the U.S. retaliation, even while they denounce the Assad government’s apparent use of chemical weapons on its own citizens.
"We want to make sure that whatever choices are made, the safety of the Syrian population, those who have endured six years of Civil War, is prioritized and our hopes are with the Syrian community and we hope they can find relief soon," said Salma El Khaoudi with the Council on American Islamic Relations in Chicago.
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But Khalaf's daughter said her father remains hopeful that Trump will be able to do what he predecessor could not.
"He is more confident in Trump because under Obama, for the five years that Obama was in office and the war was happening, he did nothing," said Aya Khalaf. "He made no efforts to help the Syrian people and he asks Trump to do more to rid them of the Assad regime."
