welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm isa soares in london where it's now 10:00. >> hello everyone i'm hal hala gorani. the syrian regime flew planes from a base and conducted a chemical attack a few days ago. there was a suggestion from the united states that russia might have been aware or even complicit in this attack. the kremlin is denying that it

had anything to do with it. the u.s., though, says it is not convinced. it is questioning if russia helped syria carry out this atrocity. here's jim sciutto with the very latest. we need to warn you some of the images in this piece are very disturbing. >> reporter: the u.s. military is investigating whether russia was complicit on kpem attacks on civilians. specifically whether a russian plane dropped bombs on a hospital victims of an attack five hours later perhaps to destroy evidence. u.s. intelligence shows a russian drone flew over the hospital site just before the bombing. this comes after president trump ordered a barrage of missiles on a syrian air base in retaliation. the first u.s. military strike

against the assad regime in the country's bloody six year civil war. u.n. ambassador nikki haley warned of possible further u.s. military action. >> the united states took a very measured step last night. we are prepared to do more. but we hope that will not be necessary. >> reporter: the target of the strikes was syria's air base, launch point for the syrian war planes that carried out the chemical attack. the pentagon says 59 of 60 tomahawk cruise missiles severely degraded or destroyed their targets including aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, fuel and ammunition dumps and air defense systems. the pentagon estimates 20 aircraft were destroyed, though video of the aftermath shows several shelters still standing and military aircraft undamaged. u.s. missiles left the runway intact and avoided chemical weapons storage to prevents

civilian casualties. the march to military action took a little more than 48 hours. the planning began tuesday, the day the world saw the first images of victims, many of them children of the chemical weapons attack. on thursday before president trump sat down to dinner with the chinese president he met with his national security team to discuss military options. deciding then to order the strike that night. at 8:40 p.m. eastern time in the middle of the night in syria the attack began. two u.s. war ships in the eastern mediterranean, uss porter and uss ross launched the 60 tomahawk missiles towards the syrian air base. trump sat through dinner with the chinese president and the attack was under way. 35 minutes later at 9:15 p.m. eastern time the president's national security team briefed him on the mission's results. >> shjim sciutto reporting.

rush's deputy ambassador to the united nations told the u.n. security council say that will embold end isis and other terrorist groups. washington is repeating mistakes it made in iraq. >> we describe the attack as a flagrant violation of international law and an act of aggression. we strongly 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, lebanon military bases and see what happens. these actions contradict international decisions including the geneva communique

which we designed with you and there it says, it talks about settlement while maintaining national institutions. is that the sort of -- national institutions that you're supporting? >> the russian deputy ambassador to the u.n.. let's bring in paula newton who joins us from moscow. paula we know where russia stands on strike. what has been the reaction from the kremlin that the u.s. is investigating whether russia was complicit in anyway in this chemical attack? >> reporter: four words, this is not true. that was the answer that was give tone our matthew chance in a text message and the denyals will come. as you heard from that u.n. meeting, they don't even admit at this point there was the kind of chemical attack that we've been showing for days now, the images we've been showing. also they say look wait for an independent investigation. the u.n. meeting you just

showed, you really could have cut the tension with the knife, the looks going back between nikki haley and u.s. deputy envoy not to be believed each trading barbs. russia saying you the united states are afraid of having an independent investigation in this and nikki haley saying in her remarks that the syrians struck with that chemical attack because they knew russia would have their back. all of this to say as they are trading barbs back and forth what they are trying to realize is what is the upshot for both sides and what the russians are trying to figure out is this one and done or does this mean, are they ushering in a whole new campaign of u.s. intervention into syria. >> that's what everyone is trying to figure out. let's talk about that tension between russia and the u.s. because we know we have rex tillerson visiting russia next week. i believe that hasn't been cancelled. how awkward will that meeting be and what will be on the table? >> it won't just be awkward, it

will be crucial at this point in time. we're getting indications from our white house correspondents the trump administration now want as seat at the table. he says it's been breathtaking. a week ago we were hearing from nikki haley and rex tillerson they thought the leader of syria would stay in place for some time to come now you have indications from rex tillerson to the kremlin i'm coming there to discussion with you what was going on. you were to guarantee, you russia to guarantee that syria didn't have those chemical weapons. if you didn't know they had them why count you stop their use. one influential lawmaker here saying to tillerson, tillerson u.s. was disappointed by russia response. was he expecting something else he asks? a startling statement. but with a purpose. it builds leverage before the visit. he said that's the point here. the united states is trying to set this up so when they arrive, if they want to discuss

humanitarian corridors they want to make sure that russia, they are trying to get russia on board with that. if they want to discuss a no-fly zone again russia who we he hadment -- would oppose that. >> paula newton for us in moscow at this hour. very good to see you. thank you, isa. the syrian government, unsurprisingly was very unhappy with this missile attack on one of its air bases. they called it an american strategy. turkey has a very different view of the whole thing. in fact they hope this is the beginning of more to come. here is the president at a rally. >> translator: 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 a beginning with regards to such developments. >> ben wedeman joins me now live from turkey and i understand there's been a phone call between the vice president, mike pence and his turkish counterpart, the prime minister. >> reporter: that's right. the turkish prime minister spoke with by phone with mike pence the u.s. vice president, obviously syria, the top of their discussion. we understand from the statement that he told mike pence that we expect the u.s. to weigh more on syria on the syrian issue and ready to give all kinds of support. he also stressed the need to set up safe zones inside syria because the turkish government is worried that there will be more refugees coming out of syria as a result of this latest strike, keeping in mind, of course, turkey hosts nearly 3

million syrian refugees, the largest syrian refugee population on earth. now, at the same time, however, we're learning that there have been more air strikes in idlib province where, of course, on tuesday morning at about 6:30 in one town more than 80 people were killed in this suspected chemical attack. we understand from an activist news network in idlib province that one town 10 kilometers north was hit by aircraft. not clear if they were syrian or russian resulting in the death of ten people. >> and, ben, for many months the primary concern and objective of the president of the united states which he stated publicly many times was the fight against isis.

right now this is shifting his attention to the syrian regime and we haven't heard necessarily much about isis in the last few days. the expectation somehow the attention of the united states now will not be solely focused on the terrorist group? >> well, the irony here or the complicated nature of the situation here really comes home when you consider that the united states, in fact, has conducted thousands of air strikes against isis targets since 2014 in syria alone. i think the number is around 8,000 air strikes. we're talking about, we're to concussion on just one cruise missile strike on one syrian regime airbase which it's not clear if this will make much of a difference. yes the united states is very much involved, for instance in the battle to drive isis out of mosul. american troops are on the ground in syria, supporting the

effort to retake the city of raqqah as well. and, of course, when you consider the fact that there's now, as a result of the aftermath of the attack there's so much discussion about perhaps an attack to weaken or undermine the syrian regime. what does that mean? you weaken the syrian regime someone fills the vacuum. what's the largest and most dangerous military force in syria after the regime? isis. and isis is always very good at taking advantage of other forces weaknesses to fill the vacuum. so, yes, we've been focusing on the syrian regime but isis is still very much a threat to syria, to iraq and elsewhere. hala? >> i'm sure it's looking at the situation very closely trying to

see how it can play to its advantage. ben wedeman in antakya, turkey. thank you very much. we were with ben discussing the bigger picture. you have rebel groups, you have isis holding major parts of the territory, including raqqah though they are under pressure and now the syrian regime of bashar al assad feeling the heat a little bit after that u.s. strike. how does this change the picture, this u.s. military intervention, the overall syria picture? >> i don't think the limited and targeted attack by the trump administration will make any strategic difference in syria. if the administration, the trump administration does not really follow up, if there is no strategic vision, no political road map, i don't think the trump administration has any

particular clear ideas about sustained diplomatic engagement inside syria. we keep talking about chemical weapons and poison gas. these are evil weapons. i doubt very much if assad will ever use chemical weapons from now on given the fact that the message has been received in damascus and tehran and moscow. but remember there are 400,000 people have been killed in syria in the past six years. only 1,000 of the 400,000 have been killed as a result of chemical weapons. assad has a massive arsenal to continue to kill his, what he calls the terrorists and his enemies and he has reiterated in the past two days he'll do so. so the reality is regardless of how you view this particular attack it will not change the complex dynamics inside syria unless the trump administration really follows up with a sustained diplomatic and

political decision for syria. for that they would need russia as a partner, right? have we reached that the stage or at least the beginning of where discussions can take place between the two countries to achieve some sort of political stabilization there? >> russia, as you know, controls the skies and the land in syria. it's the most really powerful place inside syria. anything that you need do in syria you need russia. not only you need russia you need iran, another major player besides syria. my fear and this is my fear, i could be wrong, what this administration has done is that really in a limited and targeted attack, unless there's kind of a political strategy, you are going to see more escalation in the next few weeks and next few months. the trump administration has taken on a formidable coalition. you're in lebanon. hezbollah has about 5,000 skilled fighters inside syria.

iran has thousands of fighters. russia has some of the most advanced anti-missile forces inside syria. so the reality is unless there's engagement with russia and regional players turkey and iran you'll have more proxy war and more escalation in the next few weeks and next few months inside syria. >> i want to ask you one question that's come up again and again and again about this air strike. many people and you see it on social media, even in every day conversations if president obama had only done something similar in 2013 when russia wasn't involved we wouldn't be where we are today. this was 250,000 deaths ago and it could have had an impact. some of the people here have to say support donald trump's decision to bomb that airbase. do you agree with any of that statement that we could have avoided so much of the misery in syria had president obama acted

after the chemical attack in 2013? >> my reading, hala, does not support this particular hypothesis. the syrian conflict is complex. it's a civil war, ideological war. you have al qaeda, you have isis, you have regional war by proximateies and global war. we in the region basically simplify and distort a great deal. we think the united states has a magic wand by which it can move things whether in iraq or syria. it does not. neither barack obama nor donald trump can make a strategic shift in the overall dynamics in syria and iraq unless there's pressure on the local players and the regional players. i think the region has changed a great deal in the past 20 years or so, in particular since 9/11 and i think we don't take into

account the persistence and determination of local players and the major role played by pivotal regional powers, turkey, iran, saudi arabia, they are trying to the fill the vacuum of global leadership. the united states is no longer the undisputed and unrivalled superpower it used to be. as always a pleasure talking to you. thanks for your take. we'll have a lot more of our coverage live in beirut. for now, isa, back to you. next on this special edition of cnn newsroom we'll bring you up to date with the other top story and that's stockholm. new developments into that investigation of the deadly truck attack. vehicles used as weapons. not new. what terror looks like in europe. we'll have both those stories for you after the break. n jump h enough to catch a bird.

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new dream cushion liquid foundation... from maybelline new york complete, luminous coverage for fresh-faced perfection. maybelline's new dream cushion. complete luminous coverage in a compact. make it happen ♪maybelline new york . just joining us welcome you all watching a special edition of cnn newsroom. let me bring you up to date on our other top story and that's deadly truck attack in stockholm. swedish media says a bag of explosives have been found in the truck used in friday's attack. authorities also say the man arrested is likely the driver of the vehicle and is being held on suspicion of terrorist crimes through murder. four people were killed and 12 wounded after a stolen truck

barreled into pedestrians on the busiest street in the swedish capital. the prime minister said everything indicates it was a terror attack. matt, what more do we know about those explosives and indeed about the man they believe was the driver here? >> reporter: they are talking about sources and explosives. what's interesting and it does make this attack different from the other ones we've been comparing toirkts ones in london and berlin and nice as well because they were an attack in a truck. this is an attack in a truck with explosives. it suggests there's intelligence to be had there and authorities looking very closely into that. they've asked people not to come down here to central stockholm not because of any danger but to allow them to carry on with the investigation. focused, of course, on the street where all of this happened. if you look behind me this is

the main shopping street. the truck would have been thundering towards us if we were there at the time. you can see how narrow it was and to think that this would be at its busiest full of shoppers and people going home from work. amazing to think that there weren't more casualties and more deaths and eventually the car cra crashed into that department store on the left. you can see all the damage done there. all the forensic research is being done as well at the moment as well as wider investigations. the country today really feeling as if their man is probably locked up and trying to come to terms with actually what this means for the nation. so this barrier behind me quickly becoming a makeshift memorial. coming down, bringing flowers, bring, staring at the scene and one of them was the deputy prime minister. >> of course this is at the

heart of the capital of sweden and this is our home town and lots of people from stock home yesterday reacted very openly with their arms open to welcome strangers and those that had problems in getting home last night because all the subways and the public transportation was closed off. so lots of people had problems. and i think we can never protect ourselves from this type of violence with no, let's say no limits to what the perpetrator is willing to do with no human or normal, let's say calculations. if you're willing to sacrifice your own life and you're willing to sacrifice others completely innocent people's lives that's very difficult to protect yourself from. >> reporter: frightening

reality. another country really learning a lesson here in europe. >> absolutely. i know you know sweden very well. how rattled is everyone by this? give us a sense of the mood. >> reporter: well the mood is often expressed isn't it by moments in a situation. the crown princess came a moment ago just before we came to you and she laid a big bunch of roses there, the red roses lying on the floor and thieves almost incapable of saying anything at all. she's very emotional. full of tears. and just sort of raising the question about why sweden was targeted. and it's a question the police are trying to get to the bottom of too. >> yeah, it's a question that we're constantly contingent why. max foster in stockholm for us. using weapons is a clear trend from nice to berlin to right here in london and now unfortunately stockholm. nic robertson has the story for

us. >> eyewitnesss say the attacker put his foot on the gas and ran through the crowd. his killing spree began midafternoon on one of stockholm's 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 stockholm 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. nic robertson, cnn, london. still to come we'll bring you with a top story the u.s. launched a military attack on syria. what's president trump's next move. the first water gel foundation for a refreshed look like never before. with hyaluronic acid it plumps and quenches. delivers natural, flawless coverage that treats skin to 24 hours of hydration. this is what makeup's been missing.

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welcome back to our viewers in the united states and around the world. you're watching cnn newsroom. i'm isa soares in london. >> i'm hala gorani. we continue our breaking news coverage of the u.s. air strike against the airbase in syria. i'm in beirut, lebanon. the bird's eye view distance between where i'm standing and central syria is less than 100 miles. this is a region where the distances are sometimes very small geographically but politically and strategically they feel like they might be a million miles patient. speaking of what is a million miles apart, well it is donald trump's positions. two positions with regards to the syrian regime in this space of 48 hours that's very different. on one hand we heard just about three days ago from the highest representatives of the u.s. government that the objective of the united states snopt is not

change and it's up to the syrian people to decide the fate of their president bashar al assad. two days later we see a major strike against an installation in syria. what led to the change for donald trump. here's the story. >> reporter: president trump's biggest commander-in-chief moment launching air strikes in syria. dramatically changing the tone for his first meeting with chinese president xi jinping. >> the relationship developed by president xi and myself i think is outstanding. we look forward to being together many times in the future. and i believe lots of very potentially bad problems will be going away. >> reporter: meeting at his mar-a-lago resort the president letting the missile strikes speak for themselves.

the president's decision to strike thursday evening was a dramatic turn around in his posture on syria. >> in this vital national security interest of the united states to prevent and to deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons. >> reporter: white house aides said the decision unfolded like this over a three day period this week. at 10 cohn 30 a.m. tuesday the president learns of the chemical attack in syria. at 3:00 p.m. wednesday the president is briefed on options by his national security team. at 1:00 p.m. thursday the president convening a meeting of his top advisors aboard air force one before coming back to tell reporters this. >> i think what happened in syria is a disgrace. >> reporter: at 4:00 p.m. thursday after arriving in mar-a-lago he gave the order to strike after his fourth meeting

with his national security team. the most consequential decision of the young trump presidency unfolding against a deepening fracture inside the west wing over syria and the broader direction of the white house. chief strategist steve bannon demoted from his seat on the national security council earlier this week argued against the syrian strikes. he's increasingly at odds with jared kushner the president's son-in-law and senior advice orwho now has a more prominence seat at the table as these behind-the-scenes photographs show. the strikes in syria are a departure from the president's america first agenda crafted by bannon. while wildly praised for taking actions republicans and democrats called on the white house to explain its new stand towards syria. >> i don't think they have a policy yet but they better have one because things probably are not going to get better in the area there. >> reporter: the trump administration is crafting that policy now but also keeping a close watch on syria.

secretary of state rex tillerson said the u.s. is watching to see what syria does next. of course if they respond or do more chemical attacks the u.s. is likely to respond in kind. this is all testing the president's america first agenda. he once said syria was not the problem of the united states. now it clearly is. the ball is in his court to see what happens next. jeff zeleny, cnn, palm beach, florida. >> lawmakers on both side of the aisle have been supportive of president trump's to strike syria. but one house democrat calls the president's actions reckless. take a listen to what she had to say. >> what i believe, what you believe or others believe is irrelevant. what matters is 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 to call him a war criminal and to call for his prosecution in an international court. make sure those consequences are there. the key now is with president trump's reckless military strikes last night, it flew directly in the face of the action of the u.n. was working on at the time to launch an independent investigation, to find out exactly what facts are, who was involved and who was responsible. so the appropriate consequences could be levied. >> the air field where assad launched his chemical attack was severely degraded and i think certainly in the short to mid-term affects his ability to conduct future attacks. >> the president didn't not need congressional approval. >> de. he has an obligation to protect our troops. the presence of sirin gas is a clear and immediate threat to those troops. >> joining me now is assistant head of the u.s. and america's

program at chatham house. thank you for joining us. i'm looking at the british papers. u.s. said never again. one of the headlines of a warning to assad. what's your assessment of where the u.s. goes from here because i know that we don't -- we haven't heard yet a clarity on foreign policy when it comes to syria. >> the problem is that this is a very, very rapid turn around. last week trump and his foreign policy team were talking about sort of stepping away from encouraging assad to stand down or trying to push for a political solution that didn't include him. they were basically let russia be in the driver's seat in terms of determining syria's political future. this week completely different picture. you have rhetoric used by trump you can imagine another democratic or republican president using that this was an attack on values, that there's some international norm against chemical weapons used and so this was a just and proportionate response to withhold that.

that's not something you've seen trump that's not rhetoric you've seen trump use before. very interesting shift but not yet -- it's early days but not contexturalized. >> it's major pivot. no one saw it coming. what does it mean in terms of u.s. policy when it comes to syria. if let's say assad does the same thing again, let's hope he doesn't, but if he does what toes the u.s. do? do they intervene again and will the u.s. stop as well make an air strike if there are other bombs. where do you draw the line? >> there's a scenario where this doesn't fundamentally change anything. if assad looks at this okay we won't use chemical weapons any more we'll proceed with the usual means of repression that we've used the air strikes and barrel bombs the u.s. has largely ignored that for five or six years now and could continue, conceivably doing that and the situation in syria would

continue on the track it was on before this week. but if there's another use of chemical weapons then the u.s. is faced with a very, very stark choice of does it escalate, does it engaging a more thorough air campaign to not only punish the syrian regime for one chemical weapons use but to degrade its ability to use those weapons again in the future. that's a much more expensive, much more complicated prospect with a much higher chance of drawing russia in to a much greater degree >> you're damned if you do or damned if you don't. at this stage we don't know what the president thinks in terms of the bigger strategy. is it about taking out assad, replacing assad with someone else or is it about isis? >> i don't think it's about replacing assad. a single cruise missile strike against a single airfield is not a refwim change operation. it's signalling. it's about getting rid of some of the capabilities used for this particular strike without

manifestly changing sort of tactical picture, without encouraging regime elements or anti-regime elements to consider a leadership change. i think that's, that's the sort of standalone thing. the question as you say is what happens next and whether there's another use of chemical weapons. we just don't know that yet. >> thank you very much. now coming up, u.s. missile strikes overshah to key meeting between u.s. and chinese leaders. how china's leader learned about the attack. we'll take you live to beijing next. ttery technology, it delivers the cutting-torque of gas. the ego mower's durable construction makes mowing in difficult conditions easy. the self-propelled model makes it effortless. and it folds flat in seconds for easy storage. the ego power+ mower. exclusively at the home depot

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welcome back, everybody. we're live in beirut. i'm hala gorani. continuing our coverage of the u.s. strikes against the military airbase in central syria. one thing those strikes did achieve is they managed to somewhat overshadow a very important visit in the united states by the chinese president, xi jinping. this is something that was very important, very hotly anticipated, the leader of china, especially after some very harsh rhetoric from president trump against china and what the president considers unfair trade practices. what's the reaction in beijing. matt rivers joins me from the chinese capital. what have been people saying and officials, state-controlled media been saying about this visit and what was or of not achieved in that? >> reporter: generally speaking state media here has completely

ignored the air strikes that went into syria. instead heaping a lot of praise on this visit, on the trump administration, saying that it's clear the trump administration, despite what candidate trump used to say about china has now come to recognize as one paper put it the importance of the u.s.-china relationship and to be fair this meeting was very diplomatic. it seemed very friendly. it was a stark departure from what we heard from donald trump throughout the campaign season and it marks a really big turn around from the way he used to talk about china. we to know there were differences brought up according to the white house. they talked about how president trump brought up what he believes are unfair trade practices with china making it an unlevel playing field. both sides talked about north korea, that of course being the most urgent threat for both countries the ongoing weapons development program. both countries have differing views how best to stop that crisis but the only thing that came out in the read out from

the white house is both countries agreed to work together on it without giving any further policy proposals. finally in this read out they discuss the south china sea. china has aggressively built up artificial islands over the past several years, militarized those islands much to the dismay of the united states. both sides are saying we'll work together to resolve our differences. very diplomatic. one sticking point has been the deployment of an anti-missile defense system in south korea to counter the north korean threat. china has been very, very upset about that but we're hearing from the south koreans that president trump actually had a 20-minute phone call local time saturday morning with the acting president of south korea and in that phone called said he reiterated to president xi that the united states would move forward with that deployment, they are sticking to their line there and that's very for the u.s. overall very diplomatic meeting, something very different than what many were expecting for the first meeting between these two

men. >> we didn't talk much about it. has to be said with that surprise u.s. strike in syria. there's always that touchy subject of human rights, you know, a lot of criticism directed at china because of its poor human rights record. in this particular case was that topic brought up at all? >> reporter: well, there's been a long standing tradition of u.s. administrations to bring up human rights when they meet with their chinese counterparts and it does appear that the trump administration sort of brought it up. so in this statement i'll show you part of the statement it read, in quotes, he, meaning donald trump noted the importance of protecting human rights and other values deeply held by americans. that's it. done appear they talked very much about it. they talked about the economy, they talked about north korea, they talked about the south china sea and then they put in one line about human rights and other values. so we don't know what those

other values are but it appears human rights not very high up on this agenda. >> all right, matt rivers live in beijing. when we come back we're live in beirut, lebanon. how did graffiti lead to one of the bloodiest civil wars in the middle east? it was the first of what kick started the first event that kick started a revolution and then a bloody conflict. we'll take a look back at the origins of the syrian uprising. we'll be right back. to cover the eastern seaboard. i've climbed a mount everest of fiber. probiotics? enough! (avo) if you've had enough, tell your doctor what you've tried and how long you've been at it. linzess works differently from laxatives. linzess treats adults with ibs with constipation or chronic constipation. it can help relieve your belly pain, and lets you have more frequent and complete bowel movements that are easier to pass. do not give linzess to children under six, and it should not be given to children

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welcome back to cnn newsroom. the syrian civil war is now its its seventh year with no clear earned in sight. during that time about 400,000 people have lost their lives and millions have fled the country. we explain how it all began. >> reporter: they call at any time cradle of the revolution. this is daraa, syria, a small town about 50 miles from damascus. here is where graffiti containing anti-government slogans sparked the start of the syrian uprising.

it was march 2011. and more than a dozen children have been arrested for drawing that graffiti. protesters demanded the release of the children and democratic reform. it quickly turned violent with protests spreading and syrian security forces opening fire on crowds. >> it's been bombed every day. a thousand people die. this is other land and we will not leave. >> reporter: protesters targeted the government of syrian president bashar al assad. >> translator: it's our enemies are working daily and scienti c scientifically to undermine syria. >> reporter: the regime's response was swift. brutal crackdown, massive arrests and casualties. the president made promises that never came. >> the level of anger and passion here is absolutely palpable. we're just a few miles from the

center of damascus. this is a crowd here of perhaps several thousand people. they've taken over the whole area. >> reporter: the government militia continued to torture and murder their own people. using tanks in surprise raids. >> translator: i'm not the only one whose life has been destroyed or whose husband is missing. everyone in this country has a missing person or destroyed home or is displaced. we have been through so much. we have suffered and have come to hate life because of all these problems. >> reporter: emails obtained by cnn apparently from the assad's private e-mail accounts show throughout it all they don't live a life of luxury. one day in february 2012 the same day opposition fighters in homs, mr. assad's wife wrote about shoes she liked b-$7,000

pair. the first lady conducted a london art dealer about art that cost as much as $16,500. all of this during the senseless slaughter of syrian civilians. it's estimated about 400,000 civilians have been killed. since last december nearly 5 million syrians have fled the country adding to the refugee crisis in the middle east. many in syria have lost hope. >> we're not scared. i'm not scared of the chemical weapons. is there a difference dying between a bullet or chemical weapons? that's going to wrap up this hour of cnn newsroom. thanks for watching. i'm hala gorani. we're live in beirut. >> i'm isa soares live in london. for viewers in the u.s. "new

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u.s. military is investigating whether russia was complicit in the syrian regime's grew he is chemical weapons attack on civilians. >> the united states took a very measured step. we're prepared to do more. >> i wish we would obey the constitution and do this the way our founding fathers intended. >> it was a legal move. >> the president has his full