
In his first turn briefing the press at the Pentagon as Defense Secretary, Jim Mattis said the recent retaliatory strike against Syria for its use of chemical weapons on civilians is independent of the military’s primary goal of destroying the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.The April 6 launch of 59 Raytheon [RTN]-built Tomahawk land-attack missiles heavily damaged the Syrian airfield identified by U.S. intelligence as the one from which the gas attack was launched, Mattis said at the April…