Tillerson says US will confront those who hurt innocents

Speaking at a ceremony commemorating a World War II massacre perpetrated by German soldiers on Italians, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson vowed that the United States would be the defender of innocents around the world.

“We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world,” he told the gathered Italian press.

Tillerson’s remarks come just four days after the United States fired a cruise missile attack on the Syrian airbase from which the April 4 chemical attack was launched.

The April 4 attack killed dozens of Syrian civilians including about a dozen children.

Tillerson was in the Tuscan town of Sant’Anna di Stazzema where German troops killed about 560 local villagers and refugees, including 130 children, on Aug. 12, 1944.