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mission accomplished president tom's murder a dump in the u.s. ports in france hit syria's government with more than one hundred missiles. a low i'm maryam namazie and london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up calls for restraint and accusations of aggression as the u.n. security council meets to discuss the strikes. but neither president assad supporters put on a show of defiance in damascus while state t.v. shows him walking calmly into work. and tens of thousands cheer and cry as they bid farewell to winnie muddy mandela at a state funeral in so wet.

u.s. president donald trump has praised american british and french missile strikes against the syrian government as perfectly executed and mission accomplished it's the most significant attack against president bashar assad and the first coordinated retaliation the last saturday suspected chemical attack on duma washington and its closest allies launched more than one hundred missiles targeting a scientific research facility in damascus and to chemical weapons storage facilities in their homes one that was also a military command center syria says it shot down thirteen incoming missiles over damascus while its ally russia says syrian forces intercepted seventy one cruise missiles throughout the country the strikes are currently being discussed yet another heated u.n. security council meeting this one called by russia so we'll bring you the latest from there in a moment first though al-jazeera zaina holder is in beirut looking at the reaction

in syria to the missile strikes. so liberations in the streets of the syrian capital and a message of defiance from government supporters hours after u.s. led airstrikes were described as the tripartite aggression. the strikes didn't come as a surprise for days the u.s. and its allies were discussing their options that allowed the government to evacuate military installations and potential targets. at the end the operation lasted for less than an hour it was limited to destroying what the pentagon said was syria's chemical weapons infrastructure in the words of the u.s. defense secretary james mattis a one off shot just like was executed in a way that. doesn't. particularly or not. very difficult position and push them to retaliate so i think everybody i mean i

said it before everybody seems to have been relieved and some seems to be happy because that's like was not as bad as it was a few days ago. the western alliance said the strikes were about deterring the use of chemical weapons but the syrian opposition leader. once and on all attacks against civilians by the syrian government on twitter he said maybe the regime will not use chemical weapons again but it will not hesitate to use weapons this was never about regime change nor was it about reducing the syrian government's military strength and it's not just about punishing the government for the alleged use of toxic materials. to bring it on the main issue is iran's presence in syria so this sort of crisis has to be seen in this political context this time they didn't target iran because they want to avoid escalation but the issue about their presence has not gone away especially for israel. israel has been targeting iranian

assets in syria first. time now iran said seven of its revolutionary guards were killed in the latest suspected strike on the t four air base it's promising retaliation the risk of confrontation between the u.s. and russian military may have now receded but the possibility of a showdown between israel and iran is still on the table the iranian backed lebanese group hezbollah which is fighting alongside the syrian government says there is a new phase following the attack on the t. for air base israel it says is now in a state of direct confrontation with iran like the iran's supreme leader ayatollah ali how many denounced the leaders of the u.s. u.k. and france as criminals following saturday's strikes and said they won't achieve any gains that there were fears of a wider conflict if russian iranian and hezbollah forces were targeted approach syrian government alliance is declaring victory but this is not the end of the

crisis for bashar al assad arriving for work on saturday it appears he wanted it to look like business as usual. beirut the pentagon says the strike successfully hit every target and will set back syria's chemical weapons program for years you know powerful show of allied unity we deployed one hundred five weapons against three targets that will significantly impact the syrian regime's ability to develop deploy and use chemical weapons in the future the precision strike was executed with france and the u.k. demonstrating our unquestionable was all i'd like to close by noting that since the strike we have not seen any military response from actors within syria and we remain postured to protect our forces and those of the coalition should anything occur. mike hanna is live for us at the united nations and we saw the usual tensions playing out at this meeting with the fighting talk from the u.s.

ambassador nikki haley and the russian representative in a banjo very much echoing sentiments that we heard from president putin earlier on yes indeed and also sentiments that we've heard in the security council chamber throughout the week remembering this is the first emergency session of the security council on the issue of syria that we've seen this one called by russia and bolivia we understand that russia will be introducing a resolution on which there will be a vote condemning the action by the u.s. france and britain in carrying out these strikes against syria but from the russian ambassador we heard hostile and a virulent criticism of the action of the western allies when it's going to give. the united states supported by the power lies launched airstrikes against military and civilian targets in the syrian arab republic without

a mandate from the united nations security council and in violation of u.n. norms and principles of international law and aggression against a sovereign state was carried out. in an act of cynical to staying with a group of western countries decided to take military action without waiting for the results of the investigation russia condemns the attack against syria in the strongest possible terms of the. well from the u.k. ambassador we heard a justification for the strike in terms of international law from the french ambassador we heard a pledge to unity with the u.s. and with the u.k. and then from the u.s. ambassador she said that every effort is being made to reach a diplomatic solution. we acted to deter the future use of chemical weapons by holding the syrian regime responsible for its atrocities against humanity the

strikes were carefully planned to minimize civilian casualties the responses were justified legitimate and proportionate the united states and its allies did everything we could to use the tools of diplomacy to get rid of assad's arsenal of chemical weapons we did not give diplomacy just one chance we gave diplomacy a chance after chance well we also heard from the u.s. ambassador that there could be ball strikes should syria carry out any other alleged chemical weapons attacks her quote was president trump is locked and loaded but to marry him by the way you go thank you very much for me and i said nations like hanna with all the latest on that u.n. security council meeting want to get to moscow now the russian capital rage chalons is there for us and of course outwardly we had the military strikes condemned by the russians as an act of aggression but is there also

a sense of relief behind closed doors that we didn't see something much worse. i think that's pretty much exactly the case we've heard exactly the kind of rhetoric that we would expect from the russian representatives in the united nations we've heard exactly the kind of rhetoric that we would expect from putin who posted statements on the kremlin's web sites earlier on today and we've heard exactly the kind of rhetoric that we would expect from various other members of the russian diplomatic leadership like the foreign ministry and ambassadors to the to the u.s. exactly which is you know essentially saying that this is an illegal action from the united states and britain and france that they didn't clear it through the u.n. security council that they didn't even wait for the w. to finish its fact finding mission on the ground in syria there at the moment and is planning to visit duma very shortly so yeah that's what we would expect from

this kind of scenario but if you dig past all that what does russia feel about all this well i think that russia is actually looking at the. facts the water out what was actually hit in in syria last night and is thinking this could have been a whole lot worse think back to the beginning of the week all that hot talk those being thrown around with you know the ambassador to lebanon saying the russian ambassador to lebanon saying that they would shoot outs of the sky any u.s. missiles that came anywhere near syria and strike back against the platforms a lot of them of course those platforms would be u.s. warships and u.s. planes u.k. planes as well we haven't gone anywhere close to that kind of scenario we are in a position where this was a limited strike it was specifically targeting at facilities that the west believes have been involved in syria's chemical weapons program we haven't had and the thing

that threatens russian assets on the ground russian military lives we haven't had and the thing that. threatens iranian assets or or military lives either so this is a scenario that could have been a whole lot worse than it than it was it seems like the de confliction mechanisms that are in place between russia and the united states have worked to a certain extent and cooler heads or perhaps prevailed in washington d.c. with the defense establishment persuading donald trump maybe back away from what he was possibly planning earlier in the week and now we're in a position where the russians are looking at this and thinking this is a cost i think we can bear thank you very much from moscow roy chalons let's get more on europe's role then in all of this from barnaby phillips who's in westminster in central london ought to be what more have we learned about the role of u.k. and french forces alongside the us in those military strikes on syria's chemical

weapons facilities. they were both fairly limited in scope and also in objective the french. frigate which were based in the eastern mediterranean and they used airplanes the british participation was used a limited just for tornadoes which took off from their base in cyprus again in the eastern mediterranean earlier today the prime minister to resign may spoke to the british public and i think it's important to just give a bit of context here i think you've got to remember that in britain there is perhaps more than in france and in the united states are higher level of skepticism about the value and the wisdom of intervening in a conflict in the middle east i think that perhaps this country is more haunted by the disaster in iraq and of course you have a prime minister who doesn't have

a majority in parliament and so when she spoke she was careful to say that what britain and its allies are trying to achieve is very specific in scope. last night british french and american armed forces conducted coordinated and targeted strikes to degrade the syrian regime's chemical weapons capability and deter use this was not about interfering in the civil war and it was not about regime change we would have preferred an alternative path but on this occasion there is none we cannot allow the use of chemical weapons to become normalized. is it perhaps a bit too early to conclude that you can be definitively limited to what we saw last night if there was further military action by the west wing.

and i think actually the prime minister was was careful to avoid being drawn on that point when she was asked after her statement eve for example the syrian government in the british government's assessment uses chemical weapons again does britain attack again she wouldn't be drawn but you can deduce i suppose that the british hope is that that situation does not arise i think politically the prime minister will come under some fire on monday that's when she's due to give a statement here at the house of commons behind me justifying britain's participation in friday night's attack and there are many people particularly in the opposition labor party jeremy corbin you would have to say characteristically a skeptic of foreign military intervention who is calling the attack legally questionable but also even dissenting voices from parts of our own governing

conservative party and they are saying today you know what prime minister we very much would have liked to have had this debate about military action in syria before after it has occurred thanks very much barnaby phillips with all the latest from westminster and watching al-jazeera much more still to come we're going to be speaking to a former commander of british forces about the impact of these military strikes also going to bring you some other stories from around the world i jerry is preparing to mark the four year anniversary of the kidnapping of the chimp box schoolgirls. continue to pose a threat. hello significant showers recently have caused the inevitable crop damage in some parts of southern china but i think the spring rains are stuttering up and none chang

shows a significant damper hundred eighty eight millimeters in may rain will develop further south and across the border in vietnam we include hong kong in this as well so humid feel and the wet feel the start of spring rains i would think we've seen significant showers in northeastern india last few days in the northwest and or pakistan but the biggest regular shower in the south now as you might expect in sri lanka the fos out of india fifty to sixty millimeters daily is not atypical but between these two areas it's just getting increasingly holt and he would have no chance of any significant rainfall for a couple of months yet there were some interesting thunderstorms which were preceded by a dust storm going through in the last twenty four hours or so the sunday picture looks fine unsettled that doesn't mean it's over the cloud is rebuilding the winds fairly light but in time see a forecast of cloud like this suspect rather rising dust and sand or thunderstorms so this could well be the case the entocort recite more importantly the qatar

bahrain possibly briefly the u.a.e. as well. oversimple ministers for every game you will find in a climate of fear rhetoric is easily abuse story in the fourteen lines in french to gates of new initiatives to combat gangs simply being used to target the young documentary which. we started hearing kids report. had been picked up and this point is that even though kids were just literally being disappeared trumps war on gangs on al-jazeera.

welcome back in about his era the top stories this hour u.s. president donald trump has praised american british and french missile strikes against the syrian government as perfectly executed washington and its closest allies launched more than one hundred missiles syria says it's shot down thirteen incoming missiles over damascus while its ally russia has accused the u.s. france and person of violating international law and the u.n. charter. and the united nations security council is currently meeting at russia's request moscow is proposing a draft security council resolution condemning the strikes. so joining us now from jerusalem is richard kemp who's a former commander of the british forces in afghanistan thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us so as we were hearing there president donald trump quick to declare that the military strikes were perfectly executed mission

accomplished do you share that view. well or clearly he's achieved what he set out to achieve i would have liked to have seen a much stronger strike against syria but of course there has to be a balance between sending a conclusive message to president assad and to the world generally and avoiding coming into conflict with russia which i don't know what nobody wants to do at this stage and mr kemp how can we definitively say that these missile strikes have achieved. precisely what the goal was we know that three targets were hit but is it a bit too early to be in fact about that conclusion yes i think so i mean obviously there's got to be battle damage assessment to see exactly what the effect was on the ground but that is only part of the overall requirement and the other part of the requirement is whatever the exact damage was to send

a message to assad that you cannot use chemical weapons against your own people if you do there will be consequences and perhaps equally importantly to send that message to the world to countries like iran russia north korea and other countries who may contemplate the use of weapons of mass destruction and who have found in recent years a film weakness in the united states of america going back to president obama's nonexistent red line in twenty thirteen week resulted in russia's aggression in the ukraine russia's intervention in syria and iran aggressing increasingly across the middle east well so then listening to just there it would seem as though these military strikes overnight have achieved absolutely nothing if the aim was to prevent and that the use of chemical weapons well we can we call it know for sure that that has happened but also we know that. that perhaps chemical weapons have been used since the strikes that took place last year and if anything russia has

played a very strong role in syria that's not going to change anytime soon either. well you can't of course say reasonably that they would choose absolutely nothing because you don't know what they retrieved another door but i was told you what the intention was and what i hoped they would have achieved of course last year about a year ago president trump also launched a missile strike against syria in similar circumstances and that did not achieve the level of deterrence that he would destroy because a great deal stronger the more than twice as many missiles fired and hopefully it did a great deal more damage than last time but we will have to see and only time will tell whether he has deterred countries like iran and syria and russia from using weapons of mass destruction but we were just speaking to. the can right now the feeling seems to be that even though russia has condemned what has taken place as illegal as a violation of international as an act of aggression actually they are quite

relieved that you had a series of cruise missile strikes that's limited to the action that we there's a collective sigh of relief in moscow nothing is going to happen as a result of these strikes that will significantly alter the course of the war which is what you're talking about no i'm not talking about that i didn't suggest that these strikes were intended or would alter the course of the war of course the united states france and the u.k. if they wanted to alter the course of the war they could very easily do so much more effectively than russia or of a good because of course russia is these days very much a third rate military power was the united states the most powerful nation in the world but that's not what the intention was the intention was to degrade syria's chemical capability and to send a warning that you don't use chemical weapons against all international conventions without there being consequences which you can form a commander of the british forces in afghanistan thank you very much for sharing

your he's with us thank you. weapons inspectors from the i.p.c. w. have arrived in syria's capital damascus depending on security they will now try to go to the suburb of duma where that suspected chemical weapons attack took place last saturday. finding mission will try to establish whether chemical weapons were used but is not meant to assign blame the u.s. and its allies have faced criticism for not waiting for the i.p.c. japanese investigation before taking action. is live for us from on the tacky syria border the inspectors are supposed to be starting that was in duma one of the expectations from this trip where the expectation is from the syrians and the russians would divide to do in the first instance to try and establish whether an attack took place or not this is the mandate of this you fact finding mission where these members will go into duma they

will stop by there and it's using chlorine and other the nerve agent as has been alleged by rebels was used by the syrian government of course. will not stop who used it if they find out there was the use but the bigger question remains whether the fact finding mission will be able to do its job we've been hearing from a number of opposition sources saying that there's been a lot of pressure that has been mounting on the locals in dumas you have to remember that the syrian government after this alleged chemical attack was able to break down the old defenses come inside duma and take complete control medics on the ground have been telling us about increasing pressure some of the alleging that there have been threats against medical workers inside duma who have families inside damascus that if they say anything or tried to give anything to weapons inspectors their families would be at risk but these are all allegations from the opposition the syrian government says that it will allow these inspectors to continue their work in complete. with complete authority and in the facility of

their visit to decide to do. we know that nato and a you have thrown their support behind these military strikes but what has been the reaction from the region particularly from a sans allies. but syria is an issue which has split the middle east into two sides side that supports the syrian government and their allies if you look at the reaction that has been coming in from hezbollah supporters in lebanon from the iranian government is moving iranian leaders who call this an act a crime but on the other hide on the other other side there's been a lot of celebration from various sides who support the syrian rebels the syrian opposition activists on the ground have been saying that they welcome this and the syrian opposition saying that they would want this action to continue until the bashar al assad government changes its course but as we discussed earlier that this

is not the mandate of this action there's also been reaction from turkey where the turkish president who is aligned with both sides who is an ally of nato and america by extension but is also in partnership with russia and iran to try and find a solution in syria and here's what the president directly of our ground said. it was unthinkable to leave all the attacks the regime has conducted an answered that is why we welcome this operation because we can't tolerate what has happened the perpetrator has to pay for it and the regime has to understand that this inhumane and lawless attack will not stay on and. and that is the position that turkey finds itself in because it has made a point that it does not support the government of president bashar al assad but it is in partnership with allies allied to the government of president bashar al assad

so it is an issue which divides all of middle east and we hate waiting to hear about what sort of retaliate for your steps would be taken but as has been mentioned by other colleagues that there was a major sigh of relief by all sides were expecting a lot more in terms of attacks and sustained action of those promised by the president of the united states for now. thank you. i want to turn to some other stories now because it's been exactly four years since two hundred seventy six school girls were kidnapped from their school in northeast nigeria by the armed group. parents of the missing girls have month anniversary by marching to their school and renewing calls for their release fifty seven girls escaped in the immediate aftermath of the attack and four years on one hundred twelve are still being held by juries president mamadou bari says talks and back around to free the rest of the girls suffering from setbacks because of internal divides within the

armed group. a state funeral has been held in south africa for party activists when the magic is the element bella thousands of people gathered in our hometown of the wetter to pay tribute to the woman known to many as the mother of the nation she died nearly two weeks ago and john is back at the age of eighty one after a long illness katherine sawyer was at that service and so has orlando stadium. if you move across the state old you will see only red i mean. the yellow policies are presenting a different political parties the most on the neighboring. the afghan national congress. women that i was a pot of and that economic freedom fighters who ideals she supported and we have in the last few moments had a very scathing woods from the judas money memo. i think used some of the leadership of the african national congress thing that they said john how they

called how do we know and they so don't have the outs anybody or rapturous applause but every other speaker who came out to speak just talked about what she has done for that kind of thing was she kept was just not tied movement i lived when most of the i that is why they exiled or like how then husband nelson mandela in prison lost have been said about winnie mandela there's been a raging debate on how she should be remembered high legacy show the very front of us all we got that and lot of people a lot of south african speakers would tell you that yes you know she was a human being she was not a saint she had a weaknesses she made mistakes but those mistakes really should not be used to overshadow what they do is how great her legacy and that is the contribution she made in the struggle for liberation. so more in everything we're covering right here including live updates and analysis on syria al-jazeera dot com.

our top story this hour u.s. president donald trump has praised american british and french missile strikes against the syrian government as thickly executed the most significant attack against president bashar assad and the first coordinated retaliation for last saturday suspected chemical attack on duma the u.s. military says the attacks were successful you know powerful show valid unity we deployed one hundred five weapons against three targets that will significantly impact the syrian regime's ability to develop deploy and use chemical weapons in the future the precision strike was executed with france in the u.k. demonstrating our unquestionable was off i'd like to close by noting that since the strike we have not seen any military response from actors within syria and we

remain postured to protect our forces and those of the coalition should anything occur or u.s. and its allies in which more than one hundred missiles targeting a scientific research facility in damascus and to chemical weapons storage facilities now homs syria says it shot down thirteen incoming missiles over damascus while its ally russia says syrian forces intercepted seventy one cruise missiles throughout the country the u.s. security council has been meeting to discuss overnight developments at the request of russia. the united states supported by the allies launched as strikes against military and civilian targets in the syrian arab republic without a mandate from the united nations security council and in violation of the u.n. norms and principles of international law and aggression against a sovereign state was carried out good. in an act of cynical disturbing a group of western countries decided to take military action without waiting for the results of the investigation russia condemns the attack against syria in the

strongest possible terms. and inspectors from the organization for the perhaps mission of chemical weapons of arrived in syria's capital damascus depending on security they'll now try to go to the suburb of touma where the suspected chemical weapons attack took place last saturday and attempt to establish whether chemical weapons were used but their mandate does not include. looking at who perpetrated any such attack when he's a bit later on in twenty five minutes time after fault lines which is. ok. because they don't you're donilon bozak as i'm.