not. bangladesh the dawn of islam is a an exclusive d.w. report starting april twenty first. you're ready to be a news live from berlin the u.s. britain and france launch military strikes on syria explosions rocking the moscow says missiles at syrian chemical weapons facilities now this comes in response to suspected poison gas attacks that present from calls and crimes from the mobs is also warned crawshaw and iran to cut their ties to president bashar al assad. and

prime minister theresa may defends britain's role in the strike she points the finger at russia for failing to hold the syrian government accountable for its use of chemical weapons. and in damascus defiance residents are taking to the streets in a show of support for president assad his office says this is a morning of steadfastness they tweeted this video reportedly showing a soft walking in to work on what's next for syria. and. thomas thanks so much for being with us the united states and its allies britain and france have carried out a series of airstrikes on suspected chemical weapons facilities in syria president trump says they were a response to last week's alleged gas attack in the syrian town of duma which left dozens of civilians dead and bombs began hitting targets in and around the cities

of damascus and holmes within minutes of the president's announcement. display over the syrian capital damascus as western missiles fall. in a wave of strikes launched from navy ships and the french british and u.s. forces bomb syria. they were raining to knock out three targets related to syria's chemical weapons program. to facilities in the capital damascus and one in the western city of homs. syria state t.v. showed what it said was some of the mist and was being intercepted by its own forces the strikes came awake after i guess attack on civilians thought to have been carried out by forces of syrian president bashar assad and we are prepared to sustain this response or until the syrian regime stops or choose of

prohibited chemical agents i also have a message tonight for the two governments most responsible for supporting equipping and financing the criminal assad regime to iran and to russia i ask what kind of a nation wants to be associated with a mass murder of innocent men women and children. this is the biggest display of joint force by western nations against the assad regime you take prime minister to resign may said these strikes came after diplomacy had run its course. so we have no choice but to conclude that diplomatic action will not be any more effective in the future than it has been in the past after the strike some syrians hold noisy demonstrations of defiance meanwhile syria rebels fighting the assad regime condemned the western strikes as

a farce as long as assad stays in power. ok let's get an assessment now of what happened overnight joining me now in the studio is the aspen institute tyson barker he writes about american politics also with us is middle east allison journalist weiss thanks for being with us today. if we could start with you what do we know about the sites that were hit in those strikes overnight one of the sites that the seat of the team admitted being kit is these so-called scientific research centers in the area of bugs in the of the muskets this has been hit several times before by israeli jets and if this is suspected chemical weapons that but there has been up and warning for the b.s. of the regime of this that and and the same person would have seen pearson would move his assets out of the ok and other sites that were hit include other alleged chemical weapons facilities no people were killed or hurt apparently in these strikes is that what you're hearing well this would not would not say anything

about that because it would show them weak i mean they they don't admit casualties usually and the objective of this city seems to show strength regardless like any. of them the same before even was it taking hits all over the place either but showed any contrition or admission of weakness tyson what do we know about the firepower that was brought to bear on this offer of the u.s. is murder martial the great. show of force to the region there are some aircraft carrier destroyer ten warships and two submarines in the region the awkward tain a friendship is also in the region what we know from jim matta so far is this is twice the size the payload was twice the size as the fifty nine tomahawk missiles used in the twenty seventeen attack ok khalid has assad's notary capacity been affected at all by the strikes hardly mean this is in my view this is a strike to save face because they say look don't use chemical weapons again

exactly on most the you have to date since who knows it with chemical weapons i don't think it. the elite forces the other we quote forces of the regime especially the secret police the villages yunis with of bits have been wreaking havoc on civilians starting with the demonstrators pro-democracy demonstrators in two thousand and eleven ok so you're saying this is window dressing all right. let's look at this president from said he's prepared to continue with more strikes until the syrian government stops using chemical weapons but the fencer terry james madison's saying something very different let's take a listen to that. that will depend on mr a saud should he decide to use more chemical weapons in the future but right now this is a one time shot and i believe that is senator very strong message to dissuade him to deter him from doing this again ok we're hearing two different things tyson is the strategy here to keep damascus and moscow guessing about washington's

intentions i think that the intention here and we've now seen a pattern since twenty seventeen is to say that any time chemical weapons are deployed in whatever form there's going to be consequences and that's going to lead to a bloody nose but what they're also trying to say the u.s. through the signaling is that those consequences are going to be somewhat precise targeted and proportional to the attack itself so the u.s. is trying to avoid being drawn into the conflict in an open ended way but if there is more deployment of chemical weapons the u.s. will respond ok so there is the potential of another response but domestically the president's under a lot of pressure his base does not want to see this type of military strike against syria what kind of support to suppress it i have well the pictures actually somewhat mixed polling has shown actually a sma jordi of us want the us to engage in air strikes in syria what a no fly zone in syria want to continue the counter isis offensive in syria at about fifty eight percent the thing is that that support is very soft so if it led

to american casualties that would lead to a decline persepolis decline in that support and congress is very weary about any more military action in syria without congressional authorization ok congressional authorization is a big issue moving forward for any other possible strike so i would imagine let's get a view from syria the syrian army has been reacting we have some images from from state t.v. if we could get those up from how syrians have been responding let me ask you this question while we've those images to come up what's been the reaction inside syria not from the government. but from the syrian people to these attacks let's put it on the basics the anti assad sunni's. had expected a very limited response by the united states and they got to and it's just again. on the tiny stuff on that it's not even on the face so in their calculations and in their assessment they have been abandoned by the the west their allies that are up

and western allies by the international justice system remember this chemical weapons that you have within the context of the of the destruction russia and this of the regime have wreaked on the sea to civilian population we have seen dresden like world war two like the bottom of the philip or of massive carpet bombing for days that we've seen of this in thirty first century guard televised thanks so much for that for now tyson parker as well be talking again later in the show where british prime minister theresa my has just delivered as they've been defending her country's role in the military operation calling the strikes both right and legal a big issue there now she also has some sharp words for russia saying it was moscow's refusal to hold the syrian government accountable for its use of chemical weapons that made these strikes necessary until each occasion when we have seen every sign of chemical weapons being used any attempt to hold the purpose it is to

account has been blocked by russia at the u.n. security council with six such vetoes since the start of two thousand and seventeen just this week the russians vetoed a draft resolution that would have established an independent investigation into this led to tack even making the grotesque and its claim that it was staged by person so we have no choice but to conclude that diplomatic action will not be any more effective in the future than it has been in the past. ok for more let's go straight to longer than correspondent camille logan good morning to you what else has a theresa may have been saying to her she's been emphasizing that these are limited and targeted strikes she says she says that it's justified that strikes were legal they were based on a cabinet decision last says a she's emphasizing that they were targeted at those chemical weapons facilities storage facilities in syria she's emphasizing that this is not

a match which didn't change but she's also talking generally about the use of chemical weapons saying that the use of chemical weapons cannot be tolerated she wants to send a strong signal that it's interesting of course the timing there have been as we know many chemical weapons attacks in syria or at least allegations of chemical weapons attacks in syria in the past it's interesting the timing but this time theresa may seem to be standing firm despite some opposition from politicians ok you know may has called these strikes right and necessary she's also calling them legal is there a legal basis though for these strikes that's an interesting question we've already had for example jeremy colvin the leader of the labor party the opposition saying that these are not legal that this should have been a vote in parliament also the liberal democrats have come out criticizing the decision saying pretty much the same thing the green party says this is not the way forward to peace in syria but if you think back a few years ago there was

a vote in parliament opponent voted against strikes in syria and that was a very significant decision that has implications perhaps the us as well it is interesting to see this time that turkey's a man has brought my cabinet together that cabinet has made the decision trees are made to stay standing by that say that is the legal and correct decision to make them to briefly if you could get he would resign may have the support of the public for any additional strikes. an interesting question the british public a cool test between memories of losses in afghanistan and iraq we saw during the iraq war massive demonstrations people taking to the streets that hasn't happened yet but i'm not in the british public will be to mind if it is they will be asking questions how effective these strikes rating will be will they change anything in syria will the influence the government's position on chemical weapons and what is the british strategy the long term strategy for syria and those the questions i think the public will be asking today and ones will be there as well did of you

news can you logan thanks very much for that from one more russia says syrian forces successfully intercepted most of the vessels are the russians have been supporting of course the syrians are russian military official says that the coalition strikes were designed to prevent international inspectors from reaching inside of that alleged chemical weapons attack in duma if the fourth are going to go scared so this american aggression is about the u.s. seeking to undermine an objective investigation into the lead to attack the renewed its goal is to destroy the peace process in syria and destabilize the situation across the middle east and rage and. go straight to moscow now our correspondent your shadow or yuri can you fill us in on some more of what moscow's been saying about the strikes. oh yes russian president putin denounced these strikes as aggression and that would make the humanitarian crisis in syria even worse and he called for an emergency meeting of the united nations

security council but also south of that if the strike had a destructive influence on the entire system of international relations he once again the reaffirmed russia's view that an alleged chemical attack in syria last saturday was a fake he said that russian military experts who inspected to dumas the syrian c.d.o. do not have found no evidence of the attack just nowhere spock's a man of the russian minister of defense b. saw him he. sat that russian air defense forces where now in standby mode fighter aircraft is in the air asked to inspect the station but still none of the missiles in the zone of russian air defense weapons wasn't included moscow believes that this strike was not an answer to an alleged chemical attack but their reaction to the successes of the syrian armed forces in the struggle to free their territory from international terrorism with the help of the russian army ok now should the

united states and its allies conduct any additional strikes how would russia respond to that. well i think the most important fact brian is that russian air defense systems located in syrian territory have not been used to counter the missile strikes that is what is the russian minister of defense pointed out and this fact particular seems to be very important for moscow as well and difficulties between moscow and washington are still on the rhetoric level in moscow has very well listen to what the u.s. president tom passed to say had to say in his televised address mr trump accused russian president vladimir putin personally of failing to avoid to the syrian president assad to use to use chemical weapons as a kremlin see this as a personal insult to the russian president which russia russia can't accept the russians have a relatively large military base in the syrian city of hama mean if the americans attack mean then a military conflict between the two former cold war.