Whitehall confirmed a 20-fold increase in
"disinformation" being spread by Kremlin-linked social media "bot"
accounts since the missile attacks on Syria in the early hours of
Saturday. There are fears that this could be a precursor to a full-scale
campaign of cyber attacks by Moscow, with British Foreign Secretary
Boris Johnson saying Britain would take "every possible precaution" to
guard against it.
Russia,
which backs the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, had
repeatedly warned in the build-up to the cruise missile strikes that
there would be consequences if they went ahead, and Johnson told the
BBC's Andrew Marr that Russia "gives us every possible signal and
evidence that we have to beware".
Asked
if he was worried about cyber attacks on the National Health Service
(NHS), the National Grid and other infrastructure, Johnson said: "I
think we have to take every possible precaution and when you look at
what Russia has done, not just in this country in Salisbury but the
attacks on TV stations, on the democratic processes, on the critical
national infrastructure, of course we have to be very, very cautious
indeed."
The Pentagon said there had been a surge in Russian "troll" accounts
promoting false claims about the missile attacks, including that 70 per
cent of the missiles had been shot down.
"The Russian disinformation campaign has already begun. There has been a
2,000 per cent increase in Russian trolls in the last 24 hours," a
Pentagon spokesman Dana White said.
British opposition Labour Leader Corbyn will on Monday ask the Speaker to grant an
emergency debate, that is likely to lead to a vote, which will
scrutinise May's judgment in authorising the airstrikes along with
France and the US.
May is expected to tell the
Commons,what she said last week, that bombing Syria was in Britain's
"national interest" to prevent future chemical attacks "within Syria, on
the streets of the UK or elsewhere" as she invokes the Salisbury
poisonings as justification for the UK's participation in the US-led
strikes.
There
were, however, genuine questions over whether the attack by 105
American, British and French missiles had obliterated Assad's chemical
weapons capabilities or not.
Brigadier-General
Zaher al-Sakat, who served as head of chemical warfare in the powerful
5th Division of the Syrian military until he defected in 2013, said the
most strategic sites - including a depot called Taqsis in the central
province of Homs - were not hit in Saturday's strikes.
"Taqsis
depot is what we wanted to be hit. As long as it's still functioning
then they'll still have chemical weapons and the ability to produce
more," he said.
The 54-year-old general, who
left the Syrian army and joined the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA)
after he said he was ordered to carry out a number of chemical attacks
on civilians, has maintained contact with officials inside Syria who
share intelligence with him. He said Assad had moved equipment away from
the sites that were hit because there was sufficient prior warning.
The
Russian military, which spoke with Assad yesterday, said he was in a
"good mood" after the strikes, privately relieved that the three
countries had not targeted more vital infrastructure.
Meanwhile,
French President Emmanuel Macron said it was France that persuaded US
President Donald Trump to stay in Syria and launch air strikes as
punishment for the alleged chemical attack.
Appearing
in a two-hour live broadcast on Sunday night, the 40-year-old leader
said the US, Britain and France had "full international legitimacy to
intervene" in order to enforce international humanitarian law.
"It
was retaliation, not an act of war," Macron said in justifying the
operation a day before the French Parliament was also set to debate it.
"Ten days ago President Trump wanted the United States to withdraw from Syria. We convinced him to remain," he said.
He
said France now wanted to involve Western powers, Russia and Turkey in a
new diplomatic initiative to find a sustainable political solution in
Syria and offered to play the role of intermediary between the United
States and Russia.
It emerged on Sunday that a British Astute class
submarine, which had widely been expected to take part in the cruise
missile strikes, did not fire any weapons after it was involved in an
undersea cat and mouse game with Russian submarines for several days.
At
least one Russian sub is understood to have been joined by two Russian
frigates and an anti-submarine aircraft searching for the British vessel
as it maneouvred to within missile range of Syria.
The
UK, the United States and France have launched a new bid at the United
Nations to investigate chemical weapons attacks in Syria. The three
allies circulated a joint draft resolution at the Security Council.
Read more: Russia launches cyberwar on UK as Macron offers to mediate Syria crisis
