this is bbc news. i'm lyse doucet live in beirut. britain, the us and france have bombed three sites in syria. three alleged chemical sites were attacked in an overnight operation. the biggest international show of force since the syrian uprising began more than seven years ago. president trump says it was a ‘perfectly executed' strike, declaring ‘mission accomplished'. four british tornado jets were involved in the operation. theresa may said there was "no practicable alternative to the use of force". we cannot allow the use of chemical wepaons to become normalised, either in syria, on the streets of the uk or elsewhere. russia has condemned the strikes

as an act of aggression. it's called a meeting of the un security council. president assad of syria says it's an act of aggression and bombing his country will only increase his determination to fight his opponents. welcome to beirut. and our special coverage of the overnight strikes against syria. carried out by a coalition of three western countries. britainjoining coalition of three western countries. britain joining the coalition of three western countries. britainjoining the us and france. to launch attacks

against three sites in syria linked to the storage and preparation of chemical weapons. in a government operation, two sides in damascus we re operation, two sides in damascus were targeted and one of them in the central city of homs. the strike comes central city of homs. the strike co m es after central city of homs. the strike comes after a suspected chemical attack in the time of douma on the outskirts of damascus, which has killed scores of people. early this morning in the united states, president trump declared mission accomplished. he also described it asa accomplished. he also described it as a perfectly executed operation. we will go live to correspondence in washington, london and here in beirut. you also have analysis from a russian expert. first, let us look at the latest developments with this report from paul adams. after week of talking, and ourof bombing.

from a french ship in the mediterranean, a salvo of cruise missiles, in all. britain acting as well, tornados taking off from their base in cyprus, also loaded with missiles. a carefully coordinated operation led by the united states. a short time ago i launched precision targets on targets associated with the dictator bashar al—assad. in the early hours of the morning, explosions near to the syrian capital damascus, one of three hit by america and her allies. this is not about intervening in a civil war. it is not about regime change. it is about a limited and targeted strike that does not further

escalate tensions in the region, and that does everything possible to prevent civilian casualties. and while this action is specifically about deterring the syrian regime, it will also send a clear signal to anyone else who believes they can use chemical weapons with impunity. syria claims to have shot down more than a dozen missiles, but the attack involved over 100. pictures of the aftermath on syrian television. the research centre near damascus reduced to rubble, and near homs, evidence of strikes on two other chemical weapons targets. syrian officials are defiant. translation: this aggression will only increase our determination to defend our sovereignty, dignity, national security and the security of our civilians. syria says it is business as usual, pictures released appearing to show president assad strolling to work.

supporters are calling what they call a victory over aggression. last night's attacks were almost certainly less widespread than they expected. it seems clear for now the bombing is over. right now this is a one—time shot and i believe it has sent a very strong message to dissuade him, to deter him from doing this again. france says it will not hesitate to act again, but like its allies, says it is not out to provoke. translation: we are not looking for confrontation and we do not see any logic of military escalation. that is the reason why we, with our allies, ensured the russians were warned beforehand. russia has condemned last night's operation and is calling for a meeting of the un security council, but for all its threats beforehand, it is yet to respond militarily. syrian forces at the scene of last

weekend's alleged attack. weapons inspectors say they still expect to reach douma today. syria and russia continue to insist that nothing happened there. our correspondent, barbara plett usher, is in washington. it is early morning in washington and president trump has spoken. indicating without giving details that he is satisfied with the success that he is satisfied with the success of this operation? yes, he said it could not have gone better, mission accomplished. you will find out more about the details shortly because we expect a pentagon briefing in a few minutes. but according to mrtrump, briefing in a few minutes. but according to mr trump, the mission was a success. according to mr trump, the mission was a success. and his generals were speaking last night, they said they

had been ordered to destroy chemical weapons infrastructure and they had taken important steps in doing that, they have set back the ability of they have set back the ability of the regime to research development and deploy chemical weapons. but they acknowledged they had not hit every chemical weapons facility site and some still exist because they had to very careful calculations about the costs of casualties, civilian casualties and foreign casualties, especially russian forces, and that was the overriding concern. we understood earlier this week that mr trump was pressing for a larger, tougher operation. but the pentagon was extremely worried about the possibility of setting of a wider conflict, escalating something that might get out of control with the russians in such close proximity to the syrian forces. it seems that the pentagon one verse. it was a

limited strike but bigger than the one last year and the secretary of defence, general mathes, suggests you might be further operations if president assad uses chemical weapons again. that was an interesting comment by the secretary of defence because his report very much emphasised that there was just one strike, we should not expect another round of strikes this evening. and he suggested that if it was not decisive enough there could be more. we can get more details from the pentagon briefing room and hear from the spokespersons. this is an inexcusable violation of international law and the united states will not tolerate it. the assad regime's attack against innocent syrians is horrifying and tragic. and it demanded an immediate

response. yesterday, united states forces under the direction of president trump, launched precision strikes against the assad regime targets associated with the use of chemical weapons in syria. we launched the strikes to cripple the ability of serbia to use chemical weapons in the future. they were joined by the united kingdom and france, he demonstrated solidarity in addressing these atrocities. americans are united in condemning syria's inexcusable use of chemical weapons, which no civilised nation would tolerate. we are encouraged by the support we received from the senators and congressmen on both sides. they are extremely proud of the united states servicemembers who carried out this operation last night. they demonstrated unwavering coverage and commitment in their

defence of the american people and the values and ideals our nation represents. this operation was carefully orchestrated and methodically planned to minimise potential collateral damage. i can pursue you that we took every measure and percussion to strike only what we targeted and we successfully hit every target. this operation does not represent a change in us policy. nor any attempt to depose the syrian regime. the strikes were justified, legitimate and a proportionate response to the syrian regime's continued use of chemical weapons on its own people. we do not seek conflict in syria. but we cannot allow such grievous violations of international law. our goal in syria remains defeating isis. by, with and through the 70

nation coalition. but we will not stand by passively while president assad, backed by russia and iran, ignores international law. the assad regime's actions in april 2017 and on april the 7th 2018 show they have abandoned their commitments to the international community and have resorted to illegal tactics against the innocent syrian people. we call upon russia to honour its commitment to ensure the assad regime dismantles its chemical weapons programme and never uses dismantles its chemical weapons programme and never uses chemical weapons again. we support our diplomats, who are working to set the conditions for the united nations backed geneva process to succeed. and we look forward to working with the united nations envoy to syria in an effort to

maintain transparency, joel mckenzie will provide a detailed overview of the operations. general mackenzie? good morning. iwill spend the operations. general mackenzie? good morning. i will spend a couple of minutes talking about military details of the strikes were executed la st details of the strikes were executed last night and could have the first graphic? as you heard from the president and directly from secretary mattis. the us, the uk and france, three of the five permanent members of the security council, conducted a coordinated, precision strike in response to the syrian regime's use of chemical weapons. this combined military strike was directed against three distinct syrian chemical weapons programmes targets and i will show you to them oi'i targets and i will show you to them on the monitor behind me and you have access to this information. the three facilities, or they were fundamental components of the

infrastructure. the first slide? the research and development centre in ba rza. research and development centre in barza. the chemical weapons storage facility and lastly, the chemical weapons bunker facility, located sevei‘i weapons bunker facility, located seven kilometres from the previous site. air strike aimed to deliver a clear and ambiguous message to the regime that its use of chemical weapons against civilians is inexcusable and teach any future use of chemical weapons. we selected these targets carefully to minimise these targets carefully to minimise the risk to innocent civilians. we are conducting a more detailed damage assessment but initial indications are that we accomplished out indications are that we accomplished our military objectives without material interference syria. i would use material interference syria. i would use three words to describe this operation. precise, overwhelming and effective. let us go back to the first slide? i guess the first

target, the barza research and develop an centre, located in the greater damascus area, we employed 76 missiles, 57 or tomahawk cruise missiles and 19 were joint air to surface stand—off missiles. as you can see surface stand—off missiles. as you can see from the graphics, the initial assessments by this target was destroyed. this is going to set the syrian chemical weapons programme back for years. we also note that we have destroyed three buildings in metropolitan damascus, one of the most heavily defended airspace areas in the world. against the second target, the chemical weapons storage the second target, the chemical weapons storage facility, located just west of homs, 22 weapons deployed, nine us t—levels, storm shadow missiles, mabel cruise missiles and scarred land attack missiles, this was attacked by all coalition forces and our tomahawk missiles and the british storm

shadow anti—french missiles as well. against the third target, the chemical weapons bunker facility, we deployed seven scud missiles and the initial assessment is this facility was successfully hit. i want to talk about the specific platforms but were about the specific platforms but we re pa rt of about the specific platforms but were part of the strike. the missiles have described were delivered from british, french and us airand naval delivered from british, french and us air and naval platforms in the red sea, the north arabian gulf and the eastern mediterranean. all weapons hit targets very close to the designated time on target of about four o'clock in the morning in syria, nine o'clock your own east coast. more details about the platforms. in the red sea, the class cruiser monterey fired 30 tomahawk cruiser monterey fired 30 tomahawk cruise missiles and the destroyer

fired seven tomahawks and in the north arabian gulf, the bird class destroyer higgins fired 23 tomahawks and in the eastern mediterranean the french frigate fired three missiles of their navel version of the scud missile and also in the mediterranean, the virginia class john warner fired six tomahawk missiles. in the air, two lancer bombers fired 19 joint air to surface stand—off missiles. in addition, our british allies flew a combination of tornados and typhoons and launched eight storm shadow missiles and french allies flew a combination of raffaella and mirages and scud missiles and taken together, these attacks on multiple axes were able to under —— overwhelm the defence system. we flew a variety of defensive counter air tankerand variety of defensive counter air tanker and electronic warfare aircraft in support and none of the

aircraft in support and none of the aircraft or missiles involved were successfully engaged by syrian air defences. and we have no indication that russian air defence systems were deployed. we are confident that all of our missiles reached their target. at the end of the strike mission, all aircraft safely returned to their bases. we assessed that over 40 surface—to—air missiles were employed by the syrian regime, most of these lodges occurred after the last impact of our strike. it is likely that the regime shot many of his missiles on a holistic trajectory, and without guidance. we assess the defensive efforts of syria were largely ineffective, and clearly increased the risk to their own people based on this indiscriminate response. when you should iron into the air without guidance it has to come down somewhere. by contrast, the precise nature of our strike and the care with which the allied team executed this reduced the risk of collateral damage to civilians. in summary, in

a powerful show of unity, we deployed 105 weapons against three targets. that will significantly impact the syrian regime's ability to develop, deploy and use chemical weapons in the future and it has been said before but i want to emphasise that by comparison, the strike was double the size of the la st strike was double the size of the last strike in april 20 17th and i would emphasise that the strike was a multinational effort. the precision strike was executed with france and the uk, demonstrating our unquestionable resolve adebolajo close by noting that since the strike, we have not seen any military response from actors within syria and you remain positive to protect our forces and those of the coalition, should anything occur. to... we will take questions. general mackenzie said the attack initially a cumulatively set back the syrian chemical weapon programme

for years, can you elaborate on that? it was said it was intended to cripple it. can you be...? as of right now we're not aware of any, any civilian casualties. i would also note, as i said, the syrians shot 40 large missiles into the air last night and they came down somewhere, so we should recognise that this is a part of this equation also but right now we have no reporting of any civilian casualties against any other targets and we will continue to look at this closely as we go ahead so the first pa rt closely as we go ahead so the first part of the question, particularly the facility in barza, that is a c0 i’e the facility in barza, that is a core site and that is not exist any more and that will mean a loss of a lot of equipment and material and will have a significant effect so the words cripple and great are accurate. the secretary last night

said he was convinced that chlorine was used and he is still waiting for sarin gas and he was confident the syrian regime launched these chemical attacks. what evidence do you have of chlorine in the syrian attack and the 0pcw on the ground are collecting information on that. we are still assessing but as the secretary said, he is confident of the evidence we already had, which is why he recommended the strikes last night. we are still assessing and getting details and we will have more details once we have them. what evidence do you have? various intelligence and i will not speak to that but when we have more details i will come back to you, tom. general mackenzie, can you speak about, in

these facilities, whether actually, orare these facilities, whether actually, or are you convinced, there were chemical agents inside at the time of the strike? how did you mitigate not having to disperse chemical agents? and yesterday the president talked about the possibility of a sustained response. and the secretary last night spoke about this being a single strike at this time. can you help people understand, is a difference? what are they both talking about?” understand, is a difference? what are they both talking about? i will start. as we look at these targets, we start. as we look at these targets, we have a variety of sophisticated models, analysis, to calculate the possible effects of nerve agent in there and we assessed there were probably some chemical and nerve agents but we believe that by the way we attacked it, the attack profile and the way the weapon

experts looked at that, we could minimise that. i believe it at that and you can judge minimise that. i believe it at that and you canjudge over the next few hours the results of that but we believe we successfully mitigated against the fact that there are illegal weapons at these sites. are you doing any post—attack air sampling to see if there was any dispersal? we will look at the target ina dispersal? we will look at the target in a variety of means. with respect to the comment, i think the operative word, at this time. what happens going forward has everything to do with the assad regime. we sent a clear message last night. and we hope he heard that. general, have you had any contact with the russians in the aftermath of these operations? 0r russians in the aftermath of these operations? or are you russians in the aftermath of these operations? 0rare you planning russians in the aftermath of these operations? or are you planning to have such contacts in the next few hours? the deconstruction channel we and the russians use is operated

frequently over the past few months and continued leading up to this strike. and in a routine basis after the strike. the three targets, with a manufacturing or researching chlorine or sarin gas? a little of both and particularly with the barza target but a little of both. to any of these facilities have any other non—military application? of these facilities have any other non-military application? no, this is what they do presently, there might be other activities that they carry on but this is the core activity. he said none of the russian air defences were turned on, how do you explain that?” russian air defences were turned on, how do you explain that? i did not say they were not turned on, they were not employed. was agreement with russians they would not employ air defences? he said the syrian air defences did not have any significant impact on the operations, is up to say there was

rio operations, is up to say there was no interception of any of these missiles? we had no coordination or agreement with the russians before that, andl agreement with the russians before that, and i want to say that the best of our ability to determine at this time, though syrian weapon had any effect on we did. last year, when a any effect on we did. last year, whena similar any effect on we did. last year, when a similar strike occurred, there was an assessment that it degraded the ability of serbia to generate chemical weapons yet months later, the pentagon fired a specific airfield was back at this. what assurances do you have that you have significantly degraded their ability to generate chemical weapons, and for the general, that slide, it appears the un was escorted by us fighters, who escorted the bis? and what sort of missiles were shot? and with the russian defences, at their defences were not deployed, where

russian radar employed? where they pinging us aircraft? last year the focus was on delivery and this year the strikes went to the heart of the enterprise. to the research and development and storage. we are fairly confident that we have significantly crippled the ability of president assad to produce these weapons. let mejust of president assad to produce these weapons. let me just answer. the bls employed a joint stand—off missile, bis were accompanied by us fighters up bis were accompanied by us fighters up to the launch and release point, but is another way to integrate the air package to provide protection to the bombers, just as the french and british aircraft were accompanied by their own fighters as part of the integrated package to provide defence for the shooters. additionally, repositioned defensive counterairaround the additionally, repositioned defensive counter air around the theatre and thatis

counter air around the theatre and that is still operational as we observe the potential syrian response. raptors? idon't observe the potential syrian response. raptors? i don't know the answer, i will get back to you. there were reports that these facilities have been evacuated in the days prior to the strike. have you any indication that this was the case? with that not to some degree degrade your assessment of the damage that has been done? the syrian regime knows we have been looking at these targets so it is possible some people might have left it and we also chose to strike at three o'clock, four o'clock in the morning local time so we were not trying to kill a lot of people, we struck at a different time. but i believe there is material and equipment associated with each of these sites but was not movable and thatis these sites but was not movable and that is what really sets him back and if you go back to the earlier question, that is the difference between striking the airfield and delivering platforms and research

development facility. this is more damaging to syria. general mackenzie, the three targets that were struck, does this represent the totality of syria's unknown infrastructure or was there chemical weapons doctors which we did not hit because of collateral damage concerns? secondly, is calling the new red line? the administration monitored these facilities for many months and did not take any action because a nerve agent appears to have been used and wasjasm used, first or second generation? as we select targets, the syrian chemical weapons systems are larger than the three targets but these are the targets and presented the best opportunity to minimise collateral damage to avoid killing innocent civilians. we could have gone to other places to do other things but

in close coordination with allies we decided they'd best fit that criteria so there is the element thatis criteria so there is the element that is not part, there are other elements and we will continue to examine those going forward so we did employ the jassm. you destroyed most of the infrastructure, 50%, a 296? you can look at the map and make your own conclusions, i would say behind three buildings and now they do not. that is easiest to see because it was a building structure. i think we dealt a severe blow, there is some left but we dealt severe blow. what about the prospective use of chlorine in the future, if the administration did not act with previous use of chlorine, will it act? is this the new red line? it is important to understand that the assad regime has a pattern of using chemical weapons to use against its own people and

against the chemical weapons convention, despite the fact that they agreed to at and despite the fa ct they agreed to at and despite the fact that the russians were those ferran torres. what happens next has everything to do with what the assad regime decides. it has everything to do with what the government decides to enable as well. stephanie? why does the administration feel that the strikes are enough to turn the assad regime from using chemical weapons again? i will pass this to the general in a second. we were very methodical in making the decision about these sites and it was a deliberate decision to go to the storage facilities, to go to the research and development facilities, that was the difference. we think that was the difference. we think that by doing this, this was very successful. and we are confident

that we have significantly degraded his ability to ever use chemical weapons again. what kind of response should the assad regime from the us if they were to use chemical weapons again. it is important to remember that we had, that this represents three permanent members of the un security council. the uk and france are our oldest allies. this is about values. we did this because it is intolerable for any civilised nation to tolerate the use of chemical weapons. i have two, one follow up ori weapons. i have two, one follow up on michael's question for you general and on michael's question for you generaland a on michael's question for you general and a question for you. to press you on the chemical weapons programme. can you give us an idea