and that does is it for this edition of 360. thanks for watching. hope you have a good weekend. cnn newsroom starts right now. welcome to our viewers in the u.s. and around the world, i'm robin. >> i'm michael holmes. >> the kremlin denying allegations that its military may have been complicit in the use of chemical weapons against syrian civilians earlier this week. >> it is questioning if russia helped syria carry out the chemical attack from that airfield near homs or knew about it and did not stop it. we get the latest from barbara starr. >> this was the message

president trump wanted to send to bashar al assad. attack with chemical weapons, the u.s. will attack you back. 59 cruise missiles striking the syrian air base, the u.s. says was used to launch aircraft killing men, women and children tuesday with a nerve agent filled bomb. the pentagon said the strikes severely degraded or destroyed their intended targets which included aircraft and aircraft shelters. fuel and logistical storage. ammunition supply bunkers and air defense systems. >> the united states took a very measured step last night. we are prepared to do more. >> reporter: this was also a message to moscow, which denies the syrian chemical attack even happened. >> translator: to justify its armed action, washington has entirely twisted what happened. the american side can't not understand that the syrian

government troops did not use chemical weapons there, damascus does not possess it. >> reporter: many died from as fix yags from what's believed to be sarin gas. the u.s. will investigate any russian complicity. did the russians know anything about the chemical bombing? was it a russian warplane that later bombed a hospital treating victims, perhaps trying to destroy evidence? and after years of regime chemical attacks, u.s. military officials say they will now aggressively monitor syrian chemical weapons programs and potential involvement. the pentagon showed what was justified, the track of the syrian plane and imagery of where the nerve agent bomb hit. the syrian military denied using

chemical weapons. >> this condemnable u.s. aggression confirms the continuation of the flawed u.s. strategy and undermines the process of combating terrorism. >> reporter: the u.s. military had no intention of destroying the airfield, that wasn't their goal. how soon will be that be up and running and will the russians return? >> thanks to barbara for that report. >> russia says the strike on that air base may have serious and lasting consequences. >> he says washington is repeating mistakes it made in iraq and libya. >> we describe that attack as a flagrant violation of

international law. we condemn the illegitimate actions by the u.s. the consequences of this for regional and international stability could be extremely serious. you've destroyed iraqi military instituti institutions, libyan military bases and see what's happened. this actions contradict international decisions, including the geneva communication which we designed together with you. and there it says -- it talks about settlement while maintaining international institutions. is that the sort of international institutions you're supporting? >> there's a lot to talk about. paula newton is standing by. we're seeing some movements on the ground. this russian warship moving into place, into the mediterranean,

what does that mean, paula? >> the admiral is streaming its way into the mediterranean right now. it had been doing exercises in the black sea. it's an older warship that has state of the art missiles armed with those. this is a show of force, flexing muscle, russia doing what it can to remind everyone it's had quite a deployment there in syria, and in the region. i mean, nato itself called it one of the largest deployments they've seen from russia in decades. it's been successful. what you're seeing here with all this commentary from russia is, they're saying look, we have been in the syrian conflict now for 18 months. they claim that they have degraded isis. that they are fighting counter terrorism, they are fighting for their place at the table. it's important to note that last week when there were cease-fire talks in syria, the united states wasn't at the table, it was russia.

russia's saying now, the air strikes by the united states were preemptive, they should have waited for an independent investigation, and so all of these movements now designed to make sure that russia gives the message to the united states. that if this is one and done, we can tolerate that. but beyond that, we will come into conflict in syria. >> and he's going to have a chance to say that to the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson, he's heading to moscow in a few days. boy has the dynamic changed in the last couple days, when it comes to the u.s. and moscow. might what happened in syria be leverage for mr. tillerson or give firepower to the russians? >> well, all the -- the dynamic has completely changed, as you point out. they were trying to find some scope on several issues. now rex tillerson is pointing to russia, and saying, when it came

to that chemical attack, you were either incompetent or complicit. russia also pushing back, and what they want to push back on is they don't want to come to the table with rex tillerson and talk about things like humanitarian corridors and no fly zones and so for that reason, you see some very influential politicians here already striking back. alex alexei lushkov. who tweeted russia was disappointed by the response. was he expecting anything else? a startling statement, but with a purpose. it builds leverage before the visit. what is he getting at there, and what does the kremlin know? at this point in time, if you expect that this u.s. air strike is going to give you more leverage at the table it will not. we are the ones that have engaged in syria, you guys have largely left except for your air campaign against isis.

it will be interesting now to see the parameters of the deal that come together against u.s. and russia. >> all right, paula, thanks so much. paula newton in moscow. certainly russia has potentially a lot to lose if america gets more involved in syria. >> it likes having a footprint there. >> turkey's president is among world leaders reacting to the u.s. missile strikes in syria. here's what he said at a rally on friday. >> by adopting a common resolve, the international community has the capability to stop the regime and terrorist organizations. i hope the active stance that the united states displayed is the beginning with regards to such developments. >> and cnn's mohammed lila is in turkey monitoring this story for us. there's been a lot of reaction,

not just in syria, but in the region generally to that air strike. i guess a lot of opposition activists are happy it happened, but of course there is the risk of disappointing if this is all it is. >> well, that's right, and i think that's why we're seeing some of this rhetoric come out of turkey. you have to remember turkey has been backing some of these jihadist groups on the ground. turkey has been calling for the united states to take a more forceful approach. calling for a no fly zone. specifically in the north part of the country. which turkey sees as a vulnerability. of course turkey wants to make sure that the kurds don't pose any kind of threat in terms of declaring their own state or declaring some sort of autonomy in that region. what's interesting is that saudi arabia has been a big backer, key ally of the united states and key backer of many of the militant groups on the ground. saudi arabia's press agency

announced yesterday, saudi's king had spoken over the phone with president trump, and the record of that conversation shows that king solmon congratulated president trump for what he calls a courageous decision. the bigger question is, looking at the broader region, iran, iraq, and syria's hezbollah, have all cautioned against this move, saying it will do nothing but create more instability in the region. interestingly enough, all three are still calling for an international investigation into the origins of that chemical strike. nobody seems to be doubting this chemical strike did take place, and so many innocent people lost their lives. what those countries are calling for is to determine exactly who was behind that strike. was it the assad regime as the united states insists? or could it have been one of the rebel groups? so far we haven't seen evidence of what side was responsible for

the strike. >> mohammed lila in istanbul, turkey for us. rick francona joins us from la quinta in california. you've been looking at and analyzing this strike for the last 24 hours, what do you think was moist effective about it, what was the whole point of it? >> well, the whole point was to send a message to the bashar al assad regime, you cannot use these banned weapons without paying a price. i think it came as a surprise to the syrians that the united states actually reacted. because, you know, we had the debacle with the obama red line in 2013 and the new regime -- the bashar al assad regime was not sure where the trump administration was. i think they found out the other night and i think they're a bit surprised. everyone's wondering why assad

felt he had to use chemical weapons. there was no need. he's been very effective on the ground as of late. he's got russian air power. militarily he has the upper hand. what was the impetus for him to use chemical weapons, for whatever reason, i think the evidence is pretty overwhelming it was the assad regime. the strike itself fairly accurate. 59 tomahawks, a lot of ordinance into a small airfield. i've been to that airfield, it's not that large. >> one major runway. a secondary runway. three squadrons of aircraft destroyed in the raid sends a message. the syrians will say it didn't do much damage. 20 aircraft out of the air force the size of syrians is a lot effective air strike, does it send the right message? is the message going to be received in damascus?

>> it is interesting that the runway wasn't hit and maybe wasn't the right mu in addition for that, it wasn't even touched apparently, that probably was a deliberate thing in terms of the strength of the message. isn't the risk here, they sent this message because of the chemical attack that killed a few dozen people horrendously. tomorrow barrel bombs will start falling from syrian helicopters and people will start being torn to shreds. and then does that not require a response? >> you can kill as many people as you want it appears with conventional weapons. but you drop one chemical round and all of a sudden, you're an international pariah. it is kind of puzzling, there are so many deaths, 400,000 syrians have died so far in this civil war, yet an attack that

kills less than 100 draws this kind of response. it's a symptom of the time i guess. >> back to my point, why did assad feel he needed to use a chemical weapon? it just wasn't necessary. >> he's spoken about complete victory, though. >> the way things are going, he's going to defeat the opposition, he'll have complete victory, he doesn't need the chemicals to do it what he's done right now is called that into question unfortunately, i think this has changed the whole situation on the ground. the united states and russians were beginning to cooperate. there were low levels of cooperation ongoing. there was additional cooperation in the north, going after isis, and this was a good -- a very positive development. now we see that changing because

of this one air strike. the united states, which does not want to get into the business of overthrowing bashar al assad, and president trump has been very clear about that and he's trying to draw a distinction between the chemical strike and removing basharal asaad, i don't know how he's going to do that. the opposition groups feel like now the united states is on our side. i feel like the united states wants to put the assad removal on hold. >> when you use the word game changer, a game changer positively or negatively. we know the french supported this action, they also said that this is a game changer and could help boost political negotiations, do you think they're being too optimistic? people seem to be looking at this in various different ways. >> i think what we're going to find after a few days probably after the tillerson meeting in

moscow, this will ratchet down quite a bit. and the united states will go back to what it wants to do, focus on isis and park the assad question until isis is defeated and then hopefully there will be some sort of political solution, that ends in the removal of bashar al assad, but i don't think the united states will hold out for that. we'll see what the president wants to do. >> the opposition may be feeling happy about this, but the thing is, if there's no follow through and they get disappointed, there's fallout there too. rick francona, thanks so much. next on this special edition of cnn newsroom, the latest in the deadly truck attack in stockholm, we want to bring you what the police are saying right now. plus, it is a sickening pattern, vehicles used as weapons. what terror looks like now in europe.

hello and welcome, you're watching a special edition of cnn newsroom. the truck attack in stockholm. >> swedish police have arrested one suspect in friday's carnage,

he's being held on suspicion of terrorist crimes through murder. at least four people were killed, 12 wounded. after a stolen truck barreled into pedestrians on the busiest street in the swedish capitol. >> now the, the beer company that owns the vehicle says it was hijacked outside of a restaurant where it had been making a delivery. everything indicates it was a terror attack. >> max foster reports from the scene. >> a beer delivery truck was hijacked by someone wearing a mask. it was then driven down sweden's busiest shopping street. it careened through this street. teaming with shoppers and office workers. just around the corner from the main train station. the truck came to a halt in the department store up behind me. it's been taken away over night. you can't quite make it out.

you have these buses here that were abandoned in the frenzy. the whole area was locked down at the time. trains in and out of the city were cancelled and it's still cordoned off as you can see. bortd controls have been strengthed. there is an ongoing investigation that may be a threat. this attack falls into a tragic pattern we've seen here in europe. there was nice, france, berlin, germa germany. the same sort of stories from eyewitnesss as well. they didn't know what this vehicle was doing, they didn't realize it was terror, until it was too late. it doesn't feel as if we're learning anything any more. it feels routine. we have to learn to live with this. mocks foster, cnn stockholm sweden. >> max foster also reporting there from the scene. there have been several recent

terror attacks where vehicles were used as weapons from nice to berlin, to london and stockholm. >> nic robertson looks at the latest use of vehicles as weapons of terror in europe. >> eyewitnesss say the attacker put his foot on the gas and ran through the crowd. his killing spree began midafternoon on one of stockholms busiest shopping streets. the murder weapon a truck he had stolen in the hours before the attack. terror has a new face now. in the past year, nice, berlin, london, jerusalem and now stockholms have all fallen victim to this style of attack, in each city, without warning. attackers using stolen or rented vehicles, set out to cause as much carnage as they can. nice, first of these, and the worst. bastille day last year, people celebrating on the sea front, when mohammed, a tunisian living

in france stole a 19 ton truck, driving at speed into the pedestrians crowded in the promenade. by the time police shot him dead, 86 people slaughtered. more than 300 injured. five months later at berlin's fabled winter market, a failed tunisian asylum seeker with ties to isis stole a huge truck, killing its driver, plowing into holiday shoppers, killing 12 people, injuring more than 40 others. he went on the run, was shot and killed in italy a few days later. early january this year in jerusalem, a palestinian man drove a flatbed truck into israeli troops killing four, injuring at least 10. the attacker shot and killed ending his murderous rampage. in the heart of london two weeks ago, an older man with ties to

extremists drove his rented offroad vehicle at over 70 miles per hour into tourists and residents, strolling over westminster bridge, killing 4. he then jumped out and killed a policeman before being shot to death by diplomatic protection officers. isis tries to claim connection to all, whether true or not. their slick pr machine grinds out their killing narrative, don't come to syria and iraq, stay at home and kill, use a vehicle and now sweden. thrust in the path of isis' killing propaganda drive. still to come here on the program, it wasn't all missile strikes on thursday for donald trump. what we know about his talks with china's president coming up. u.s. lawmakers had some strong reactions to those strikes. what they're saying about military action in syria ahead.

welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. >> you're watching cnn newsroom. >> u.s. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been broadly supportive of president trump's decision to strike syria. >> but one house democrat said

she's skeptical the assad regime was even behind the chemical attack and calls the president's actions reckless. >> what i believe, what you believe or others believe is irrelevant. what matters here is the evidence and the facts. if president assad is found to be responsible after an independent investigation for these horrific chemical weapons attacks, i'll be the first one to denounce him, call him a war criminal and call for his prosecution in international criminal court. the key is now with president trump's reckless military strikes last night, it fell in the face of what the u.n. was working on at that time. to find out what the facts are, who was involved and who was responsible for the appropriate consequences could be levied. >> the airfield which is where

assad conducted -- larunched th chemical attack was degraded. and in the short term affects his ability to pursue future attacks. the presence of sarin gas, and a regime willing to use it is a clear and immediate threat to those troops. >> we're joined now by malcolm chalmers. >> he's the deputy general. he focuses on the defense, security and foreign policy. when we look at international reaction to the trump strike, we know the british said this was an appropriate response, and the french have said this is a game changer? >> i think that's right. >> european allies in nato are

supportive of this. the concern over here the fact that the regime has been using chemical weapons without any repost. >> do you see a strategy though -- is there a risk reacting like this about chemical weapons but not about barrel bombs and missiles that killeen more people? do you see a strategy here? >> i think there's a strategy in relation to chemical weapons, and one of the striking things about this step is saying chemical weapons are special. international conventions against the use of these weapons, for that to go unpunished would send a strong signal that these weapons are no longer as special as we've made them out to be for many decades. yes, of course, we will watch with interest, everybody will watch with interest the next time we see pictures of large numbers of syrian civilians,

women and children being killed by conventional weapons if the united states stands by and does nothing, that will be hard to swallow. if the u.s. were to react to that, to conventional attacks and you're looking at a much longer and definite conflict which would be the beginning to regime change. it would then open up the distinct risk of conflict with russia. >> that certainly is on everyone's minds, particularly ahead of the meeting. when we talk about how this plays out, the big question is what next? and, of course, also the big question is about political strategy, is there an end game here? is there an exit strategy? is this a one off? so many questions coming from allies? >> i think that's right, as long

as this is restricted to the issue of chemical weapons, then actually it's not cut and dried, and there are significant risks of escalation it's potentially containable. a simple message, if assad uses chemical weapons again he will be struck again. but if he does not, he will not be struck. this is not a solution to syria. it won't make a difference without a political settlement. even a couple months ago, there was optimistic talk about russia and america cooperating trying to broker a settlement in syria. it feels to me as if we're further away from than than we've ever been. the war on isil is having some success. raqqa may fall in the coming

months. still no clear picture even in relelgs to raqqa as to which arab forces will replace isil in that city. a lot of uncertainty remain as they have been before this step. but real questions about syrian and russian reaction i think also, real questions about what this means for how we interpret donald trump's phone policy. this is very different from what we were led to believe was his approach only a few weeks ago. we're now seeing a president much more in the mainstream actually. we would have imagined hillary clinton taking exactly the same step as donald trump made this week. >> you're right, the disparate nature of the groups fighting on the ground there. >> thank you so much. the u.s. strikes in syria

came as president trump met his chinese counter part xi jinping in florida, of course. >> matt rivers joining us now from beijing. matt, i don't know that anyone expected anything groundbreaking to come from this certainly donald trump has been belacose over the campaign when it comes to china. jinping would have been happy to get out with status quo and no nasty tweets. >> yeah, i think he's happy there were no tweets. and no awkward handshakes. the only concrete thing we heard from the white house is both sides agreed to a framework of negotiating in the future, and even that's not very concrete. really this seems to be a meet

and greet sort of visit between president xi and president trump. the white house is saying -- >> we've lost our colleague here. >> i thought it was my ear piece. >> so did i. i thought somebody switched us off. we seem to have lost our connection with matt rivers. in the meantime, we are going to continue to focus on that u.s. military strike against syria. stay with us, you are watching cnn. >> the focus is on the short term impact and what president trump might do next.

welcome back, everyone. syria and america has had mixed reactions to president trump's missile launch. members of a christian community

rallied friday in allentown, pennsylvania against the strike. >> they don't believe the government in damascus gassed its citizens and president trump only made things worse. another syrian american said he's glad mr. trump ordered the strike. >> it's about time, i mean to get rid of this tyrant, this evil tie rand. and stop him -- and stop those that are supporting him syrian people have been crying, begging for such action. >> let's turn now to michael weiss editor of the daily beast, co author of isis, inside the armor of terror always good to have you on, michael. how does this change the battlefield, if at all, i mean, the runways weren't even hit. >> yeah, it doesn't change the battlefield. it was reported today that a

syrian or russian aircraft took off from that same base that the u.s. struck 24 hours ago. i think this was a show of force, a symbolic gesture i shouldn't say just that, it's reported between 15 and 20 attack aircraft belonging to the syrian air force were destroyed in this raid 59 tomahawk missiles were launched against this air base that's 15 to 20 attack aircraft that can no longer drop bombs. including those laden with sarin gas it's a little more than symbolic, it's not going to change the nature of the war. tactically, much less strategically. >> so what then is u.s. policy, do you think? who is giving trump his advice in a political sense rather than

a military sense if this was symbolic, so what? >> i spoke last night to a senior administration official who told me this is only to deter the regime from using chemical weapons, they're still going to be able to drop barrel bombs, launch scud missiles against the free syrian army and jihadi groups and what not. number two, this is the most interesting. and if you notice secretary of state rex tillerson, a man who is known for his chummy relationship with the russian government personally came out and said, the attack with sarin gas indicates either incompetence or complicity on the part of the russian government. we know based on reporting and what the u.s. government has said, that russian military

officers were stationed at the syrian air base while those jets were being loaded with sarin laden rockets as many as 100 russian officers, they're at a different part of the base but i asked my source in the administration if they were there when the attack was going on, what did they know and when did they know it? why con the they stop it. the answer was, we simply don't know yet. >> if this was a warning sign after a chemical attack, it crossed the red line, so we have to act. what if tomorrow assad is dropping barrel bombs on women and children in civilian areas and we see more video of enormous suffering. why would that then not require a response? well, i would agree with you, that's exactly the right question to ask. unfortunately this one attack with sarin gaskilled as many as 100 people and injured several

hundred more. the problem is, the west doesn't wake up and pay attention to what's happening in syria, unless they see images of waxy corpses of children laid out on flatbed trucks who have died from asphyxiation and this horrible toxic nerve agent. and the u.s. has come out straightaway and said, this is not going to deter the regime from doing everything else. i don't see this as a major pivot, a major realignment. and my concern now is, because the syrian opposition and those that are opposed to assad are now ecstatic, they think trump has delivered where barack obama never did. i've seen images from kobani, naming their restaurants trump. you know, they're going to be arabs who are naming their children after donald trump. they're getting their expectations way too high. i think my fear is, the opposition is going to start to

write checks they simply cannot cash on the battlefield. >> it seems to be assad can't stay, can't be part of a future deal that the syrian people will go for, what is the alternative if assad goes overnight. what is there to replace him when you consider that most of the opposition now, probably because of past events, past things that weren't done. most of the opposition now has at least some jihadi influence within it. there aren't really any moderates. >> in idlib province, the entire rebel administration is led by al qaeda and other islamist groups. you can't deny that. the driving mechanism for that is not necessarily ideological terrorism. they're casting their lot with the jihadis and they're not be holden to foreign agendas.

i spoke to a isis defect recently who told me in hama right now, rebels led by the former outfit known as al nusra are waging a massive campaign to push back against the regime. this defector told me anyone and everyone is lining up to receive weapons and ammunition, no questions asked. if you're ready to fight assad, have at it. >> what has changed? >> the u.s. and cia have cut off the salaries. they've given up on this whole proxy war. because there are no foreign agendas, no geo political complications, syrians are unifying around the idea of striking the regime. that's going to change, people

are going to get emboldened and think there's a new dawn, if you like. if the united states does not capitalize on this opportunity sunni arab opinion is now all of a sudden and against all expectation with donald trump. the sense of dejection, the sense of being betrayed again is going to be immense that's going to increase recruitment to not just isis. even less than isis, to nusra, to hasham. jihadis thrive when americans let down moderates. >> we have to leave it there, michael weiss. always a pleasure, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> comprehensive analysis from michael. thanks to him as always. >> punitive strikes by the u.s. are nothing new. >> we'll take a look at past

warnings and retaliations launched by the united states. stay with us. we'll be right back.

welcome back. the u.s. has launched strikes in the past as warnings and as

punishment. most often for the murder of civilians. >> gary tuchman looks back at some of these attacks. >> reporter: five years before the 2003 war against a u.s.-led coalition, saddam hussein's iraq was punished by bombing and tomahawk missile strikes. a punitive four-day campaign, ordered by president bill clinton, following iraq's refusal to comply with u.n. security council resolutions. much of iraq's infrastructure destroyed. iraq said hundreds of troops and civilians were killed. it wasn't the first strike to punish the regime. in 1993, two years after the first gulf war, 23 cruise missiles were launched into downtown baghdad, a warning after an assassination plot was

discover against george bush. colin powell was the joint chief of staffs at the time. >> should mr. hussein dream of retaliate, we have enough force to deal with it. >> reporter: punitive attacks have been used in retaliation for murders of americans. in 1986, libyan strongman moammar ghadafi was said to be behind a bombing of a disco. two servicemen were killed. 60 rounds of munition rained down on ghadafi's compound in tripoli. >> at 7:00 eastern time, air and naval forces of the united states, launched a series of strikes against the headquarters, terrorist facilities and military assets that support moammar ghadafi's military facilities. >> the smallest child, an

adopted daughter, was killed. >> today, we have done what we had to do. if necessary, we shall do it again. >> reporter: ghadafi survived. he wasn't at the site. dozens of libyans died, as did two u.s. air force pilots. another punishment for the murder of civilians came in 1998. "operation "operation infinite reach." up to 2,000 were wounded. the punitive strikes have been used by a long line of presidents to punish or warn others when their actions are deemed a threat to american interests. >> i said we would act with others if possible and alone if necessary. to ensure the terrorists have no sanctuary anywhere. tonight, we have. >> reporter: gary tuchman, cnn, atlanta. thanks for joining us here

watching cnn newsroom. >> our coverage continues with hala gorani in beirut and's isa soares in london. that's the news. stay with us.

this is cnn breaking news. >> a very warm welcome to our viewers in the united states and right around the world. i'm isa soares in london. >> i'm hala gorani in beirut. we'll get back to isa with the stockholm truck attack. i want to get you up to date on the developments on the u.s. strikes on an syrian air base. the u.s. says it wants to know if russia was involved on the chemical attack that killed dozens of people including many children. the kremlin that allegations it was complicit were not true. that sfured