united states he said that this was a pre-designed attack he said that everyone was warned that if there were attacks like this then there would be consequences and he said the result of those consequences would be poor and the responsibility would be borne by washington london and paris making it very clear that although the airstrikes may be over and this military operation maybe it and then the middle east crisis that has been provoked by this certainly isn't all right allan live in washington d.c. thank you very much indeed so time to remind you then of the events of the last couple of hours the u.s. has carried out strikes in conjunction with british and french forces on targets associated with syria's chemical weapons program it was in response to a suspected chemical attack on duma a week ago as he announced the strikes president trump described the alleged attack by the assad regime as the crime of a month. this massacre and was

a significant escalation in a pattern of chemical weapons use by that very terrible regime the evil and the despicable attacked left mothers and fathers infants and children thrashing in pain and gasping for air these are not the actions of a man they are crimes of a monster instead of the pentagon says the operation is over but defense secretary james mattis is calling for the international community to stand up against the assad government i want to emphasize that these traits are directed at the syrian regime in conducting these strikes we have gone to great lengths to avoid civilian and foreign casualties. but it is a time for all civilized nations to urgently unite in ending the seared syrian civil war by supporting the united nations back to an even peace process in

accordance with the chemical weapons convention prohibiting the use of such weapons we urge responsible nations to condemn the assad regime and to join us in our firm resolve to prevent chemical weapons from being used again. that is just gone three g.m.t. with continued our rolling coverage of the strikes on syria by us france and the u.k. president analyses strikes two hours ago and as he was announcing it we had reports of explosions in damascus he said they were precision strikes in response to last saturday's suspected chemical weapons attack in the town of duma shortly after the announcement syrian state t.v. reported several loud explosions in the capsule damascus and they've also reported that they have shot down several missiles in it damascus now as i said both the

u.k. and france have also confirmed they joined the military operation with the americans a short time ago i ordered the united states armed forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities of syrian dictator bashar al assad. a combined operation with the armed forces of france and the united kingdom. is now underway we thank them both. ok let's go straight to a solid binge of it he joins us from near the syria turkey border so we can see the sun rising that these strikes occurred in the very early hours of the morning just about two hours ago now are we getting a clear idea of what exactly has been hit. laura as the sun comes up in syria people are now going to try and find out what exactly

was hit what we know so far is that three targets were. hit by this coalition of the united states french and british air forces as well as missiles strikes these targets were one of them was close to the capital of damascus where we've seen a number of pictures and videos emerging from that area which shows that there has been a large section of outside the city that has been set ablaze by these attacks there at least been. thirteen missiles according to syrian state t.v. which have been brought down by the air defense systems state t.v. also says that army depos in the homs province were also hit and we heard there from the pentagon that two targets in homs were struck these were chemical weapons facilities where the assad government is believed to have been stockpiling and

manufacturing chemical weapons it is worth noting that the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons which actually has a team on the ground trying to investigate what actually happened in duma has not begin its work but previously the o.p.c. w. came in to syria with a mandate to destroy all of bashar al assad's chemical weapons and it did so it said that it had destroyed all of the declared weapons arsenal that bashar al assad government was holding and as we heard from the pentagon briefing according to defense secretary jim not to say that there has been that the government has not been truthful and that guarantors of this process the russians have not been truthful in coming out in saying that all of the chemical weapons have been destroyed and we also heard just a few hours ago at the united nations security council nikki havey the u.s. ambassador saying that it is fifty incidents of the use of chemical weapons have been recorded by the president bashar. assad's government but according to other

activists on the ground at least two hundred reported incidents of chemical weapons use since two thousand so it is one of those areas that we have seen repeatedly heard that there is a red line that the international community would not allow this to happen but this isn't the first time that syria has been hit with missiles by the united states it happened last year as well but it did not achieve the desired results and we heard the pentagon saying that it is much significant in size and scale the operation they just carried out a couple of hours ago but they're seeing that but they expect that the assad government is going to surrender its use of chemical weapons it's going to stop using chemical weapons on civilians so far the reaction that we've seen this morning as the sun comes up in syria by state media is a tone of defiance there saying that life continues as normal and this aggression will not succeed and indeed. surface to air

missiles being launched by the syrians. absolutely immediately in the aftermath of as soon as we heard the u.s. president making that announcement just almost simultaneously we were getting reports of large explosions being heard in the capital damascus multiple reports on social media of people putting up photos as well as videos of what they saw a surface to air missiles being deployed from across damascus one area is the possible mountains where we know syrian in missile defense batteries have been located and this is something that they had been preparing for this is something they had been anticipating in the last few days since the president declared forty eight hour. announcement that he is going to take some action and then retracting on that statement saying that he never said that it would be military action forty eight i would give ample time for the syrian government to move its assets from targets that could have been hit if they were not under the protection of the

russian government and the russian military assets on the ground and it also had time to prepare the pentagon saying that it did not have did not give the russians the location of where it will be hitting the syrian chemical weapons facilities but it did have a conversation according to the deacon fiction agreement they have a hotline and whenever the international forces including the americans used to sit in space they have to call the russians and tell them about it ok. for the moment we'll leave it. rise in the region let's go live now to rory chalons he joins us from moscow now rory it was a couple of hours ago that these strikes took place they were announced we've been waiting to hail of course what the response is going to be from russia you herring and think that from moscow. there's been comment from the russian ambassador to the united states. who has said.

true the plan scenario is being realized and we're being threatened again actions like this stay without consequences and all the responsibility for these actions is on washington london and paris he said that it was inexcusable to insult or threaten the russian president and that the u.s. does not have the moral right to accuse other countries we've had a few more bits of comment from russian lawmakers based here in moscow one comparing donald trump to hitler i think would like me to see more of that kind of thing in the hours to come but of course that's not the real test the real test is what is the kremlin going to do about this. there was also another test being applied in the immediate hours of these airstrikes and those tests.

were these air strikes going to threaten russian assets and russian lives on the ground and was russia's much feared four hundred air defense system going to get proper combat testing now in the press conference that we heard a little while ago from. general dunford they talked at some length about what negotiations what contact to been had with the russian military in syria in advance of these airstrikes they said that the usual de confliction lines had been in operation but the only thing that they had asked the russians for was for space clearance in the skies of syria for not for this attack but in the time of this attack but that they didn't think that the russians would get any particular idea about what was coming they also said that they didn't

. or tell the russians about any specific targets but clearly it seems i think that the russians knew that something was coming if. if the americans have been asking for a space clearance and if there had been such a long time of advance warning about impending attacks it would be strange for the russians not to have predicted this coming and it seems that the russian s four hundred air defense system was not used in this in this incident and it has not had its its proper combat testing so far yet is going to ask what capabilities russia actually has on the ground to retaliate to such a strike from the u.s. the u.k. and france. well so i mean russia as i saying has this this s. four hundred system it also has an older s. three hundred system in operation in syria at the moment and then there is also

systems like the pan syria system and systems that it's given the syrian military that that would be used we think in trying to shoot down cruise missiles coming from american warships planes etc but you have the most sophisticated russian air defense systems are think mainly used to protect russian assets and they have not been used in previous u.s. air strikes against syrian targets or israeli air strikes against syrian targets. this is a system that the russians the s four hundred. around the world at the moment and therefore it's particularly vulnerable i think to the kind of incident that we're seeing at the moments where were actually be used properly and fail that would be

a bad sign for russian military technology and i think perhaps militaries around the world who are interested in buying the s four hundred would then perhaps consider whether that was a good idea or not you know russia is growing increasingly isolated on the world stage one wonders whether the u.k. would have been so quick to get on board this action had the script poisoning of the former you russian spy in england not happened and made it very personal for you for the u.k. . but i think this is all part of the general context that is going on at the moment you know we have see the u.k. and the u.s. . puts the script file case and the use of chemical weapons in syria in kind of the same box and what links the is russia and so i think the belief

is in western capitals in london in paris in the united states. the belief is that russia is essentially the facilitator for a degradation an ongoing degradation of certain parts of the architecture of the post world war two nor rules based order. and the specific architecture that they're talking about here is the chemical weapons convention and they say that in targeting former spies in london and souls free with with assassination attempts using chemical weapons and in providing cover for assad in syria so that he can use chemical weapons against his own people in doing this these capitals western capitals say that russia is basically chipping away at the chemical weapons convention one of perhaps the most successful parts of

the rules based order of the second second world war period of the second post second world war period chipping away at these conventions and these rules and making the world a more dangerous place that's the accusation that we're hearing from london and washington ok laurie many thanks for the view from moscow will be coming back to you in the coming hours for the moment thank you joins us now from the pentagon in arlington virginia davis continue on the russia theme for a moment so we've heard defense actually gives back to speaking from the pentagon just in the past hour or so tell us what coordination he told the u.s. had had with russia previous enjoying the strike. well they have a bit centrally this hotline that's between moscow and washington between the pentagon and the defense department from russia and moscow they talk every day sometimes multiple times

a day about the confliction over the syrian region there it's meant to avoid unintended consequences or mistakes between russian and american aircrafts and gauging each other by mistake so what matt has said was that they did talk today through this hotline the pentagon did inform russia that there was a certain air space that the americans would be operating in or around but that's not unusual that would be happening all the time so that necessarily would not tip off the russians so to speak when asked specifically if the pentagon. gave the target areas to russia he said absolutely not that that was not the case the pentagon gave nothing to the russians other than the normal channels of this hotline informing them that they would be have some air space operations going on at a certain time at a certain area but that's not unusual that happens every day multiple times a day ok this is a significant escalation isn't it from the attack that happened almost

a year ago to the day on the. failed another chemical attack it was a strike that was ok straighted by donald trump just take us through the differences between that one and this one today. yeah that's a good question because it on the surface of this you can look back and say how is this different than the strike from april of two thousand and seventeen it seems very similar the pentagon in their briefing here was very clear that it is different in their eyes number one is last year it was a unilateral strike on one target this strike that occurred late friday night washington time was a multilateral strike on three different targets that's the key here as we saw at the podium with the secretary mattis and joseph dunford the joint chiefs chairman of the joint chiefs of staff they also had a military asset attache from france and the u.k. standing next to him on the podium and sort of giving an example of how this is not

just a unilateral effort but a multilateral effort very different than the one last year but beyond that as well looking at the targets last year it was just a military base that was hit by the americans this time three targets one outside damascus being a scientific research center this is key according to the americans here at the pentagon because they say this research center was where the assad regime would create their chemical weapons where they would cook them up essential and this is where all their data in research on chemical weapons was held and by hitting this location according the pentagon it will set them back years in the words of secretary defense madis on being able to continue on with their chemical weapon program that's much different than the strike of a year ago so essentially what matters was saying is that it's an international coalition this time we're hitting three different targets and and it's

a much bigger strike in that way in terms of the actual number of munitions that were used we won't know that until saturday morning when the pentagon has another briefing but in the q. and a mad as did say i don't know if he'd said it mistakingly or not but he did say that the amount. noonish ns used by the americans and or the coalition was more than double than a year ago and we know that a year ago it was fifty nine tomahawk cruise missiles so you can insinuate that most likely it's probably more than. one hundred that was used in this most recent strike ok. live from the pentagon thanks very much go to remind you you're watching our ongoing coverage of the u.s. military strikes in syria u.s. president donald trump has said he ordered persistent strikes in response to last saturday's suspected chemical weapons attack in the town of doom and i shortly after the announcement syrian state television reporters several loud explosions in

the capital damascus and they've also reported that they shot down several missiles near damascus both the u.k. and france have also confirmed that they joined the military operation with the americans ok we've got reporters covering this story from multiple locations there we go beirut london the white house let's first go to kimberly hulk it she's in the white house kimberly when tris president came out just sort of over a couple of hours ago was very very keen to stress that these were precision strikes we've since heard from the defense secretary that the operation is over it's been a busy night there in d.c. . right i think the united states is certainly trying to get the information out the fall on the heels of the president's statement from the diplomatic room where he spoke just after two minutes after nine pm local time

spoke for about eight minutes and the message was very clear in that they want the world to understand that the united states france the united kingdom all are in the belief that in fact there were very clear warnings issued to the syrian government that they would not tolerate the use of chemical weapons those were ignored in the view of these joint allies and now they are calling for a number of things to happen moving forward declaring that they will have all of the chemical weapons that may still be present in syria that those need to be declared to the o.p.c. w. that they need to destroy the remaining stockpiles that exist also allowing those fact finding missions to go and investigate what happened in dubai to to to look at this suspected chemical attack that we should point out the united states says is not suspected but in fact that they have clear evidence of fact that this is the case in fact the statement coming from the white house is that this was assessed with quote confidence because of the large amount of information they believe that

they have gathered from various sources photographs videos the those that were affected by this attack according to the white house showed symptoms medical symptoms of exposure to chlorine as well as sarin that there was the smell of chlorine in the air and that there were government helicopter syrian government helicopters circling at the time of the attack so the white house sending out these statements on the heels of the president's address to the nation and really to the world about why they felt that these actions were justified. of course the russians came to have a very different point of view i'm just saying a line dropping on the agencies from russian russian's foreign ministry saying. the attacks happened i'm own. and syria had a chance for a peaceful future i mean clearly russia was very keen to know plays the blame the piece of the u.s. the u.k.

and france for any escalation will prolong of the war in syria right exactly and that is something that we saw not just happening after these strikes but of course earlier in the day here in the united states we saw that the united nations where russia was very strong in saying to this is this is essentially amounting to a major misunderstanding you've got your facts wrong but the white house has responded to those latest claims by russia saying in fact that they will not be fooled by the quote russian dissin for mation campaign that russia quote must assume responsibility for its behavior so certainly the white house not buying any of the arguments that are coming out of russia including the one by the russian ambassador to the united states in his statement saying that in fact such actions will not be left without consequences so certainly russia taking these actions very seriously the united states for its part doing the same absolutely and let's look

at the possible consequence the potential consequences within the u.s. because of course president trump has gone and done these strikes without congressional approval is there going to be some backlash to the. it's a bit of a domestic argument that is not new quite frankly i've been covering u.s. politics for twenty years and i can tell you that every president since george w. bush has gone and taken these types of actions without congressional approval yes it is a requirement of the u.s. constitution that many politicians both democrats and republicans seem to conveniently ignore at times when they feel it is justified so certainly we have had a wave of statements by both democrats and republicans some saying that they are concerned that this action has occurred without congressional approval but i can tell you for the most part overwhelmingly the statements have been relatively supportive of the actions of this administration saying in fact that there was the need for

a strong military response from the international community to put iran and russia on notice but again you're right there is a domestic debate going on about whether or not this was justified the u.s. president to the administration will certainly have to brief members of congress i can tell you that we do know that the intelligence committees of both the house and senate sides were briefed earlier in the day by the cia director might come peo about the intelligence in terms of justification we know that the broader congressional leaders were briefed by the vice president mike pence who happens to be improve for the summit of the americas but did reach out to congressional leaders to let them know what was taking place ok kimberly many thanks for joining us this late hour from the white house we will be coming back to throughout the night thanks very much for the moment andrew tabler is a senior fellow at the washington institute who specializes on the u.s. policy in syria joins us via skype from washington d.c. good to have you with us on to first what is want to draw on your experience from

inside syria as i know you've spent some time awards and i appreciate you might not have visited the site but what do you know about these sites whereabouts the three areas that have been targeted tonight. yeah. i like the last u.s. strike much closer to damascus much yoel much bigger in terms of. the military research he believes those sites in what we can see what the rest of the details are but it's a different story than then. strike much wider and wider to see if it's a one off or if it's something more concerted. but you know all my sources in damascus say there are abrasions have been going through out the capital and the message has been sent it did seem if we were listening right to defense secretary mast that it was a limited strike these three targets were hit and that is the end of this

particular operation until or if syria as president bashar al assad strikes again with chemical weapons what are the chances going to do that. it's a good question so the answer regimes deployable manpower is very limited they're trying to disguise that into fall the international community into thinking that they have the weapon the manpower to retake their own territory without russian iranian assistance that's nonsense so this kind of strike degree's their capabilities and calls into question their ability to impose a solution they were much better off in negotiating a solution with the opposition so. it could depending on how this all shakes out in how the straits go it could have an impact on the political process ok it could also have an impact on the shape of the war such as it is couldn't it because if assad carries on with conventional weapons that doesn't seem to be enough to bring

in more foreign interference for example from the u.s. the u.k. and france it's only when chemical weapons they use that it's considered to be a red line that brings on these strikes so essentially assad could look at this and say all i need to do is keep using barrel bombs and cluster bombs and kill more than half a million people that way and i can can see i can see this war through to his end but simply but it's very hard for him to do so. in the sense that he has to resort to these chemical weapons. as a result as a result of his military desperation now you know how that changes his calculus ultimately will depend on how the u.s. wants go the escalation jane and i suppose it also depends on how far russia and iran are willing to go to prop up assad that's true it's another factor the as we say your enemy has a vote in what happens in a victory. what do you think. about it what's the message that the u.s.

is sending to syria to north korea to iran by some by by instigating these tribes strikes. very different approach than the previous administration which largely got into posturing. concerning these kind of conflicts stepping back from them and approaching with diplomacy this is a very different ministration they don't approach things with with diplomacy they approach with military force in terms of in forcing that which has been established in terms of u.s. interests i think president trying to bring clearer that that he sees the defense of the red line as a key part of u.s. national interests and i think that's correct now how you defend that going forward in the face of iranian and russian response i don't know i mean trump wants chemical weapons to stop but he's made it very clear that he doesn't want to be any

more involved in the syrian war can hit t.v. these two things. well i think he sees the desire of clout of syria. and the larger strikes inside syria go weapons is two different things it's not and . given the multiple conflicts to go inside syria it would be a logical leap to do that but we have to wait and see. because. from syria could. ensure that i said is that isis rather is not defeated and there iran is not rollback in the region and that's something that is ministration desires andrew tabler we appreciate you taking the time to join us thanks very much for joining us there from washington d.c. . a pleasure you're watching our ongoing coverage of the u.s. military strikes in syria is just coming up to zero three thirty g.m.t. u.s.

president donald trump has said he ordered precision strikes in response to last saturday's suspected chemical weapons attack in the town of doom and shortly after the announcement syrian state t.v. then reported several loud explosions in the capital damascus and they've also reported that they have shut down several missiles at near damascus i think you can france and also confirm that they have joined the military operation with the americans well british prime minister trey's m a has said that there was no alternative way to stop the assad government from using chemical weapons we are acting together with our american and french. the syrian regime has a history of using chemical weapons against its own people in the most cruel and apparent way and a significant body of information including intelligence indicates the syrian regime is responsible for this latest attack this persistent pattern of

behavior must be stopped and the barber joins us now from london and the daemon to reason may be very quick to release that statement in the dead of the night in england. that's right that televised statement came shortly after she made a final phone call with the french president emmanuel mcconnell and it was just after president trump actually started speaking so clear coordination happened there it was a long statement by to resume a in which she said that she didn't undertake this decision lightly the first time she as prime minister had had to engage militarily and she said that it was clearly a response to what she says was the the chemical weapons used by bashar al assad in duma she says that as you were hearing just

a moment ago he cannot be allowed to continue to do so with impunity and she says that the u.k. and allies strikes will send a message to anyone else who think that they can use chemical weapons with impunity just a bit of detail the ministry of defense here in britain also released a written statement calling saying that they had conducted a successful attack now we have seen pictures of fighter jets arriving back into u.k. a military base on the island of cyprus perhaps they were involved the ministry of defense say that the the strikes or the operation happened at two o'clock local time. in which four tornado fighter jets tornado planes long to the royal air force launched storm shadow miss oils what they're calling a military facility which was.