tomahawk missiles without any pilots. if the u.s. would have gone in with fighter aircraft and bombed, u.s. officers could have been injured, is that right? >> and the way you save lives is you use as many standoff weapons, as these weapons are called, as possible. so you want to use them in order to achieve not only a tactical outcome, a good tactical outcome on the battlefield, but you also want to keep as many americans safe as possible. >> they're not cheap these tomahawk missilemizech do you have any idea how much each one cost taxpayers? >> well, i have to look at the exact figures, but we are talking several hundred thousand dollars easily for each warhead.

and when you talk about multiple you're approaching millions of dollars for each warhead. >> one of the other things it has to do well is to make sure what we do going forward is consist with the other battle we're fighting in syria and iraq, and that's against the islamic state. it has to make sure it takes steps to prevent russia from interfering with the efforts of our pilots in that conflict, that it doesn't paint our pilots with their very many air defenses. at the same time as we're dealing with resources to deal with al assad's use of biological and chemweapons that those resources are not diverted for too long. so that's one of the challenges for the administration. >> just a factual issue, tony,

you're on expert in this area. isis suspected targets or whether elsewhere in syria, this is the first time the u.s. has launched air strikes against the syria targets, is that right? >> yes. >> tell us why. >> usually you have to have the u.n. security council give you the authorization. or we would have to be invited in by syria itself, which wasn't going to happen. then there was the concern about getting ourselves into some kind of escalation that would lead us to basically have ownership of

all of syria. that's something that even as we were working to support the syrian opposition, even as we were working to try to protect the syrian people, we didn't want to own it. >> i want everybody to standby because we have a lut more coming up. our breaking news right now, president trump orders u.s. military strikes on syria. this is "cnn tonight" i'm don lemon. >> and i'm wolf blitzer. you're looking at the missile strike on syrian target. >> the strike in retaliation for syria's chemical weapons attack on civilians earlier in the week on president trump's orders u.s. warships launched 59 cruise

missiles where the war planes that carryied out that attack were based. the missiles were launched from warships based on the mediterranean. >> wolf, we have a lot to get to, this operation happening at 8:40 p.m. eastern time. i want to get right now to ryan brown at the pentagon. ryan, you have some new information for us. what can you elus? >> that's right, don. the military is telling us they did indeed have some conversations with the russians using a preestablished channel called the deconfliction channel, which was initially setup to help the planes avid any accidental interaction. so they used that channel to inform the russians these strikes were going to occur. and the they really underscored that point that they knew there were russians at this base, but

they undertook extra efforts they didn't strike any personnel or any of the areas they believed russians were operating. in addition, this site was believed to be used as a chemical weapons facility. and so they also did not strike sites that were believed to be storing chemical weapons. we heard that from lieutenant general mcmaster, donald trump's current security advisor. >> we know that the russians are expressing anger about this tonight. do u.s. officials believe any russians were killed? >> they do not believe any russians were killed. they took these measures to strike, and they actually communicated with them beforehand. that beinged said, there are a lot of u.s. troops in syria participating in the fight

against isis, some numbers as high as 1,000 u.s. troops in the battle. so they are constantly taking precautions, understanding they could potentially be a target in some kind of retaliation. now, we're told they're not taking any extra precautions at this time but they're definitely keeping an eye on it given the situation. >> talk to us about the military assets that were used. >> that's right. there are two ships that were kind of delivering the tomahawk strikes. of course, this allows you to kind of have a little bit of what's called a standoff distance away from any potential antiaircraft weapons that could shoot down manned planes, manned aircrafts. so it's a useful tool that kind of protects the deliver of the weapon. and also the weapons, it kind of

hugs the grund, the tomahawk mishal takes a low approach avoiding any antemissile counter measures that the regime might employ. so a very effective weapon for this situation. >> wolf, the entire world is watching this. and reactions from around the world coming in through. >> it's coming in very, very quickly. some initial reaction coming in from russia as well. christian it's the middle of the night here on the east coast of the united states. but much of the rest of the world is now waking up to a brand new reality. what do you anticipate the reaction will be? >> well, you can already see some of it coming in fast and furious. there are criticisms from the usual suspects. obviously russia and the syrian regime. but the obvious of what you had

been reporting is the u.s. had been talking to russia before they launched this attack. and yes we're going to be seeing in a few days, a few weeks how to go forward from this. but obviously this is very significant. it is a one off for the moment. it was done in proportion raeksz by the violation of international law by using -- it's the first time to prevent it by the lujeem is very important. people mix-up the fight against terror with the fight against assad. assad is the reason for the rise of isis. so trying to fight isis without making sure that assad doesn't compicate the picture along with his allies, raugsa, and iran has

always been something that's been very hard for the u.s. administration to get their heads around. so so many people around the rest of the world believe that assad and his use of targets that destroy civilians and including the use of banned international substances like chemical weapons is part if not the main problem in syria and has been for many, many years, wolf. >> christian it's top of mind here montana united states and our relationship with russia. what does this conflict mean for the relationship with russia. for years the president has been saying wouldn't it be great if we had a better relationship with russia? that was already an unlikely prospect. what about now? >> i think you have to go back several years to find out that having a better relationship with russia is something all administrations have tried to do. president bush, h.w. bush tried

to do it. row you remember very famously he looked into his eye and saw his soul. there was that big eruption. the obama administration tried to reset. and then russia decided to violate international law itself and invade crimea and annex it and then to interfere with ukraine. and that has put russia on the wrong side of international law and history at the moment. so it is an incredibly complicated situation no doubt about it. it's very interesting to hear the read out through this deconfliction channel. we don't know any others, but they weren't in the way as far as we know. and we're going to see how they

work this out because this is real issue, now, that all sides have to deal with. >> the secretary of state rex tillerson is supposed to be in moskow next week. i assume that visit will continue unless it's cancelled in this late minute. it's taken a very surprising, very negative turn. >> let's just see what happens. the united states has the most powerful military in the world. it is the richest country in the world. russia has by no means theuble to counter the united states under the conventional weapons capability it has. it just doesn't. it is true in syria it is incredibly potent and poufral of the newest range antiaircraft systems. the syrians do not have the capability to deter the united

states military. they just don't. they have been degraded. they don't have that capability, and that is why this was, you know, able to be done. and actually i think what's going to be fascinating is to hear what president trump and president xi talk about. and there in florida we've got the two most powerful leaders in the wrushld the president of the united states and the president of china, about to sit down and continue their conversations after this strike. that's going to be really interesting because president trump has also on his plate how to deal with north korea's rising nuclear threat. so all of this comes at a very, very crucial mome. >> christian you're right about that because the two men are meeting right now. as this was happening they were having dinner in mar-a-lago at

the president's compound there. our jimmy costa was traveling with the president and immediately after this the president was affected by these images of dead children. this conflict has been happening for some time now, we heard the president speak about that statement tonight. those photos clearly had an impact on his think. >> oh, i think absolutely. i was really struck, and i said it that this seemed to be a much more -- a very changed and very shaken president. trump is a very determined trump. you heard him say it basically had changed his view of syria and al assad. and all of this was ampified biez the rest of his administration. you had the u.n. ambassador at the u.n. just shortly before the

president saying this is unacceptable that the u.n. needs to be respond. i mean you kn even get the u.n. along with russia and china to agree to a rezilation condemming an act of war by a government that signed on tonight -- you couldn't even get them to condem it. you had rex tillerson confirming they had no doubt assad had launched this chemical attack. and you had the rest of the evidence coming out yesterday as the pentagon confirming that these planes, they had tracked them with the radar and infrared figuring where they had come from and how they had launched this attack inland. and the product changed on that very important dime of

international law. i don't think anyone believes this is an ongoing attack, that this is a precursor to an invasion of syria or anything like that. i think they've said it, that this is it for the moment. let's see what happens next. but this is designed to deter a tyrant who has for six, now going into the seventh here been responsible for deaths of nearly half a million people, 12 million refugees, many of them in outside syria putting pressure on allies like turkey, like jordan, not to mention lebanon and all over politics on the rest of the world. this is massive, massive crisis that the west has not dealt with in the last seven years. and it still needs to be dealt with. >> you think it's too far-fetched christian to think

that these air strikes, it obviously sent a powerful message to the trump administration and people in syria and the middle east, but is it too far-fetched to think it also sends a message to north korea? >> that's what i was saying, i think it's very important the action that was taken if you're talking about also having north korea, try to figure out how to deal with north korea. now, there has been some loose talk about a militaryau or we'll take care of it ourselves or whatever it is, north korea is a complex situation because it actually does have nuclear weapons and is trying to develop a system. they've been firing missiles and most of them have been landing in the sea of japan, threatening american bases, threatening american allies and then

threateni threatening -- could threaten the united states. so the policy of the united states so far and the rest of its allies, has chaelg not worked. the policy of trying to outsource it to chooena, has actually not worked. objectively speaking it hasn't worked because now north korea has nuclear devices, and as i said, is trying to perfect the delivery system. so a new policy has somehow to be devised. and that is why the meeting between president trump and president xi right now today in mar-a-lago is going to be of vital significance. all things like the trade surplus and unfair practices, et cetera, et cetera it's coming at a time when the national security aspect of it is now

center on the table. >> it certainly is. christian amanpour, thanks so much for joining us. >>son it reported that's what president obama told president trump that neek, the biggest threat to united states because of that capability or because they were such wild play, such a wild card? >> yes, there's no doubt that president trump emerged from his final conversations with president obama, president obama warning him that the gravest national security threat facing the united states right now was north korea because of its nuclear capability, ballistic missile capability, and the unpredictability of the leader kim jung-un. and i think it sort of had an huge impact on president trump. >> we'll standby. everybody standby. we'll be right back with our breaking news. we'll have the latest live on the ground in the middle east.

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our breaking news president trump launches a military strike on a syrian government target in retaliation for their chemical weapons attack on civilians earlier this week. i want to bring in our cnn chronant jeff zeleny who was traveling with the president in mar-a-lago. looking forward to tomorrow, what should be expect? >> well, don, i think that, you

know, the summit with president xi xiping is going on today. and the president still has the same issues, but you can be sure the military stieks in syria certainly create a whole new light for this conversation. in fact the president we're told met with his advisers before dinner last evening and ordered these strikes. so all of this happened in realtime has they were having this formal dinner in mar-a-lago. but it certainly cast president trump in a different light. i mean these are the two most powerful leaders in the world. they've been following president trump to the russian investigation happening here in the u.s. to other things. so this certainly makes president trump look stronger and more decisive than he has

looked in the first 77 days of his presidency. and of course the two big issues that are on the table are the economy and national security. but the national security focus, the president actually said earlier when he was flying down here to florida on thursday afternoon, he said, look, we need to talk about north korea. so the north korea threat there is front and center on this agenda at this meeting later today here. but the whole, you know, backdrop cloud of syria over that certainly is interesting. because, don, it's important to put in context. i mean this has just happened in the course of really 48 hours or se. it was really less than three days ago when the president said that's not our fight in syria. and thursday he addressed the nation and said, look, this is national vital interest. everything we gleaned from this that he was moved by those pictures and he indeed thought

the united states had to act. and he's getting a little blow back from some people in congress, senator tom cane, a damning in virginia called it unlawful, that the president is not under authority to do it. he supports it overall, but he agrees there needs to be a use from a force from congress. but the reality here is the president acted decisively. >> and jeff, just real quickly there was indication before this dinner tonight pwith the chinese president that something was happening. because the president earlier this afternoon started asking officials what his options were when it comes to syria. >> he did. i mean he was asking what the options were to syria. and he was presented with a couple of different option. and then again before that dinner this evening, you know, he basically made the strike man. but, don, it was about six hours

before the strikes were launched when he was flying here to florida on air force one. and we were asking him -- i was one of the reporters on that flight when we were asking him about assad and should he be pushed out of power. and he said something has to happen here. so this is what the president had in mind. >> thank you very much. i appreciate you reporting back to my colleague wolf blitzer. it's actually about 48 hurs. >> it really is amazing when you thing about what the president said just a few days age, what his top advisers were say recollect and all of a sudden the u.s. launches these attacks inside syria. when we hear about the opposition, tony blinken, these opposition forces, how strong are they? how credible are they? are they really a threat to the

regime of bashar al assad? >> either one side wins and that's not likely to happen in syria because as soon as one gets advantage the outside comes in and tries to take over things. second, the party's fight to exhaustion, that could happen. finally there's some outside intervention, either military or one of the two. whether he can leverage the action to try finally to get others onboard to move this, the civil war to a better place. and there may be an opening here. there's a lot of bluster from the russians in reaction to this. but at the end of the day they

know they don't want to be left holding the bag in syria. >> yeah, but that's an optimistic assessment. juliette you've been watching this very, very closely as well. after six years 400,000, maybe half a million people killed. this could go on a lot longer. >> oh, absolutely. i think the impact on the strike is still an unfolding story. and i may have a little bit more pessimism about what it means. i understand the visceral reaction to those pictures of the children, but syria was not an imminent threat to us. and so us bombing so quickly probably minute we did not have contingency plans in place for our ultimate goal. i still don't know what our ultimate goal is.

it's change. do we want assad in, do we want him out? there's going to be expectation from others for us to do more because of the humanitarian issues. it's hard to tell how it unfolds. i think tony's right, what we're hearing from the russians is bluster. but nunt putin likes havingnomies, and it's good for him to do a laurt of bluster. and so that may not wend with just words. so that's one piece. with the russians saying this uncomfortable alliance we have in fighting isis and syria may now be deteariatored, i am now worried about what that means. wer at a good stage with isis, we have troops there, and i want to make sure they're protected as well. >> yeah, there are quite a few u.s. troops. the battle for mosul and iraq

continues. apparently some progress is being made there, and maybe even some progress against mosul iiraqa. how will this action impact the overall fight against isis in both syria and iraq? >> well, wolf, i think it's going to have a significant impact. i don't think we know exactly what that impact is going to be. but what i see happening right now is some of the sources of support that we have for the anteisis fighters that may be going through the syrian government controlled territory or russian controlled territory, that may dry up. that could limit or ability to do things with our partners, especially in iraqa, maybe not so much in mosul. and if that happens you're going to have a much more difficult fight. it's difficult already. but the agree of difficulty may increase any further because of these attacks. so there are certainly some

consequences to this. and there are possibly some areas in which the u.s. could see its efforts hurt a little bit by this. >> tony blinken what do you think? >> i very much agree. and i think both juliette and cedric are right. as juliette said we're actually in a pretty good position there. we're on the verge of helping iraqi forces take back mosul. we were getting to rocka and the mission there is important. that caliphate is gone, and there won't be a -- so keeping the fog s on that is vitally important. and tonight's action does cochicate that mission. and that's why the administration has to be very

careful that it doesn't get pulled into some kind of escalation, some kind of mission that really takes our eyes and resources away from the fight against the iloss umic state. whether it's russia compicating the airspace we're fighting against. so tonight's action was the right thing to do, but what we really need to see now is how does it fit into a larger strategy. >> and to avoid what has plagued the u.s. military on many occasions. let's go back to don for more. >> thank you. very interesting panel here. we have a new image on the target taken before tonight's attack. again, these are the pictures coming in from syria. i want to get straight now to cnn's muhammad legal legala.

muhammad you're in istanbul tonight. what's the reaction out there? >> well, don, anytime you're talking about syria -- this is the news they have been waiting for. they have been pleading with the u.s. government for years now to take some sort of forceful and meaningful action in syria. and this is now they're effectively getting what they wanted. saudi arabia putting out a statement that it fully supports a military operation against military targets. you're going to see that same sentiment over and over again. don't forget these are countries that have backed fighting against bashar al assad. afghanistan not only will they

be expressing a sigh of relief today and a sense of happiness but they may even ask the united states to do more. because as all of the analysts have been talking about this evening, this may not change the fight against mim. so we may see turkey and syria coming out to do more. over all in this region the reaction today is perhaps one of a little bit of surprise and certain lehappiness and eagerness to push the united states to do more. >> muhammad thank you very much. i want to bring in my panel again. so let's get into this. there's a lot of things i want to talk about here. how does one assess whether, you know, assad has changed, if he's

a changed man? do we do it because of chemical weapons, because of sarin gas, because of barrel bombs? how? >> he will go back to what he did after the first time we warned him in 2013. he will go back and use bombs, starvation, mass tape, and all things that produced jihadists and a vefgy crisis we haven't seen since world war ii. if it's a political play game so we don't think about russia or north korea or bill o'reilly, that will actually not deter assad. he will continue and the war will be exasperated. we are seeing a dictator that has been emboldened more than anything we've ever seen.

we're seeing a guy that basically is telling his people i will obliterate any of you if you ever stand against me, your children, your grandchildren. let's remember in 2003 when americans invaded iraq, this is the guy who was releasing jihadists to fight the war in iraq. you know what he said to them in fair face, he said america has no kind of evidence. so he's a sociopath and he's willing it go all the way. >> on that point, i'm sure you have hardened military veterans including veterans from the nsc including people who are protége of david petraeus, mapping the -- >> you're saying the adults are

in the room now. >> yes. and also the adults who knew what he was up to in the decades of 2000, when he was running these jihadists into iraq to blow up these others. he was domi'lled in eastern syria by osassad. they snuffed him, and the evidence was presented to assad. they said look, we want you to stop doing this. we wantia to seal your border. his response was this wasn't here, and how dare you come in here and kill this guy on my soil. >> let me tell you we've been doing that -- when i was in iraq back in 2003 we immediately saw the red lines were beginning to

blur. so we've seen this. my point reinforcing what you've said, adults are in the room. but adults have been in the room consistently. >> but the big question is does this change moskow's calculus? the big question is what happens monday when tillerson travels there. that's maybe the one positive thing that might come out of this, but who knows i think assad will continue with barrel bombs and who knes what else. >> sadly, dwrng we are underestimating. i think assad is playing the final game of his life. meaning, he will have to die. >> meaning, it's going to get worse. >> absolutely. it's fighting until the end. the reality is his own regime that was willing to negotiate eight years ago, a year ago to

open up and conseed some partition, he will not listen to moskow. >> will he list toon the u.s.? >> the iranians not at all. now even his own people who start abandoning him are now back. >> hold on one second. and this why you say this is one off? >> this has to be resolved in office. to your absolutely spot on point, if he is fighting for his survival, what you're saying is it's going to get worse before it starts to scale away. if he's going to self-destruct, there's a high cost to pay, but what i'm saying is the calculation is human suffering by itself is insufficient.

>> sir, i've been at the borders. >> we've all seen it. >> i understand, however -- >> don't assume we don't. >> no, i understand. however, the implication of having a half million or 600,000 people dead, millions of people spread all around, the consequences of that we're already seeing an entire generation of syrians middle easterners who are looking at americans and being silent. they're asking the world basically to save them. guess what, we're gifting them to isis and to the jihadists. >> it's like david said, you've got ten years and you can exhaust yourself -- >> what are you guys reporting? >> well, syrian reports that

there's no -- this is the question, the opposition will i think be encouraged by this. but they don't have the military force to top al assad. assad has won this war. >> he's won the war or less until united states says. that could be ampified, and we can recruit more people to do that. this is very weak regime. this is an iron yn controlled sovereignty. i talked to an iranian officer. he said without hezbollah, our bacon is cooked. that makes moskow completely

wetted to techren. which made the original trump strategy of let's try to strip that alliance almost impossible. putin cannot afford to get rid of iran without getting rid of assad. and to him that would be a sign of weakness. look, there is no love loss betwee between assad and putin. he doesn't want to be there doing this, be at the u.n. contauktic conspiracy theories about the gas. his hands also tied. >> we were talking about the american's military might, the russians can't stand up against syria. we're still remembering the wars we just got out of it. are we willing to go back there even though we had the strongest military might in the world? >> that's a question we

routinely have to pulse. what our allies do quite well is we self-regulate. there are laws of land of cam bat, how those domains of war and how we engage in those domains have rules. >> to win these conflicts you have to put soldiers on the ground and have them die. >> everybody standby. when we come back the latest on our breaking news. president trump orders a missile strike on syria. s on centurylink to keep their global campus connected. and why a pro football team chose us to deliver fiber-enabled broadband to more than 65,000 fans. and why a leading car brand counts on us to keep their dealer network streamlined and nimble. businesses count on communication, and communication counts on centurylink.

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i'm ricardo, a sales and service consultant here at the xfinity store in bellevue, washington. here at the store, we offer internet, tv, phone, customer service, home security. every situation is a little different.

it could be about billing, simple questions like changing the phone number. sometimes, they want to upgrade, downgrade, but at the end of the day, you want to take care of the customer. one of the great things about comcast, there's always room to move up. of course, it depends on you, how hard you work. ♪ our breaking news tonight president trump launching a military strike on the syrian government air base in response to its chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians including children. david rode is back with us as well. christian we hear a lot about the russian support for the regime of bashar al assad, but we hear a lot less about the

rirain yn support of regime of bashar al assad. how do you think russia is going to react to this attack? >> they're condemming the strike as you would expect. the criticism is chg from the usual suspects in the usual corners. i think it's vital to remember if had it not been for iran and russia coming from 2012, about a year and a half into the crisis there, this would have been over a year ago. bashar al assad was underfoot for a long time. we don't know whether they're going to respond, whether they're going to calculate this is fight to death for iran to keep bashar in place. i don't think anybody particularly believes their future is tied to bashar, especially not the russians. in fact over the last several days and you'll get more of this from matthew, the russians have

been saying we don't just support bashar blindly. and what's interesting right now is some of this reaction coming out, for instance, from france well originally they were saying don't just lash out angrily, now the french saying that the future of syria is not with assad, america is beginning to clirify its response and policy on syria. and you had from russia just a day ago, i think on appeal to the united states from the security council. so tell us what your policy on syria is. because he's the legitimately elected president of syria. so maybe the united states has a policy, it can try to bring others along. >> and speaking of russia and this perfect segway, christian i want to ask matthew. matthew, do you think the russians expected this prom

president trump? all right, we lost him. christian, i'll ask you the same question. >> it's very uncler. i think they knew it was a very strong ration in the rose garden on wednesday, i think it was. they started to say, tell us, what's your plan? what's your program? and the readouts, they were warned and prepaired and told to get their people out of the way. let's not forget, russia is a signaturery of all of the weapons of mass destruction. weapons of mass destruction have been used by the syrian regime. and until tonight, with impunity. this is an incredibly important moment. no matter what happens from now on this, is a line in the sand in many, many ways. and over the last few days, you remember that, perhaps, say months and years ago, various

world leaders were saying assad must go. and then, just dropped it. and over the last few days, they started to say it again, whether it was the british prime minister who said it, the british foreign secretary who said it. and over and over again. people just, you know, realizing that this is something that can't be allowed to stand. and you just heard from many of the panelists, from general spider marx and others, that it was president assad who played a very dirty, vicious double-game throughout the war in iraq, where he allowed his order to be the pipeline and his airport in damascus to bring all of the fighters in and bring free hand across the borders to iraq. and attack americans, and support the insurgency, which was growing dead. that was the insurgency that was the precursor to isis.

>> i'm going to ask matthew. do you think when they signaled that assad could possibly stay, that the russians expected this from president trump, from the united states? matthew? >> i can't imagine that they really expected this. at the same time, they understand that i think donald trump is an unpredictable figure politically. and they were braced for this. but the reaction is already coming out from the russians now. i mean, there's been no reaction yet from the kremlin. but they're going to the cu furious. i can imagine the strongly worded statement that we are going to hear from them. there's senior lawmakers in this country that tweeted their initial responses or posted on social media. vict victor osorof has called this an act of aggression against a u.n. member. and russia will call an

emergency session of the u.n. security council to discuss it. one of his co-lawmakers, the head of the committee on international affairs, saying what will happen now is russian cruise missiles will continue to strike terrorists. and american ones will strike government forces. that's an indication of the sentiments we're hearing from the russian kremlin. what it does for the u.s./russia relationships. there were hopes during the campaign, this would be a reset between these two countries. this, i think, must be the final nail in the coffin of any idea there is going to be a detaunt between moscow and washington in these early days, the early years of the trump administration. >> it's very significant.

and, david rohde. all of us listened closely to what donald trump said during the campaign, since his election, during the transition, as president. all of the hope he was expressing for a new and improved relationship between washington and moscow. right now, at least, in the aftermath of the cruise missile strike, that seems to be a -- that seems to be diminished dramatically. >> this is an amazing 180. donald trump is carrying out the policy that hawks in the obama administration were calling for. and those proposals, trump ridiculed over and over again. it's a huge change. if there is another chemical attack, he has to respond militarily. he has drawn a red line of his own with this response. >> you think there will be -- the syrian regime, bashar al assad, the reaction to the most recent chemical attack, they will do it again? >> i don't think so. they will use barrel bombs. they will show they are active

on the ground and not going to be cowed. assad needs to do that for his own public standing in syria. and eel see what the response is to that. what does the u.s. do if it's, you know, terrible atrocities. barrel bombs have killed more than chemical weapon attacks in syria. what happens after that? >> let's see what happens. all of the wording coming out of the administration, this is it for now. this was proportionate response to the violation of international law. and this was, our reaction to this heinous crime as president trump put it. but you know, these barrel bombs are not just benign barrel bombs. they have been carrying chemical substances. chlorine gas and others that are prohib prohibited. the truth of the matter is, this regime has been conducting these things with impunity for a long, long time. and, yes, we've had the two

bookends of the massive sarin gas attacks in 2013 and this week. almost every week, they're using barrel bombs filled with chlorine gas. that's less deadly than sarin. it is a chemical weapon and they use other barrel bombs filled with other stuff, to attack hospitals, schools, all that stuff is still going on. >> very, very sad situation unfolding. our breaking news tonight, trump orders a missile strike on a syrian government air base. >> that's our breaking news. wolf, it's been a pleasure. thank you for joining me. thanks for watching. that's it for us. our live coverage continues in a moment, with john voss in los angeles. ! oh, hey, rob. what's with the minivan? it's not mine. i don't -- dale, honey, is your tummy still hurting, or are you feeling better to ride in the front seat? oh! is this one of your motorcycling friends?

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