you're watching the news live from berlin and the u.s. britain and france strike syria the joints trying targeted allege of chemicals weapons facilities overnight syrian state television has released these images purportedly showing the destruction the u.s. says it's a response to the suspected poison gas attack by president assad's forces last week . these are not the actions of a man. they are crimes of a monster instead of u.s. president trump denouncing assad and now praising the u.s.

military for what he calls a perfectly executed attack tweeting mission accomplished. and residents take to the streets of damascus in a show of defiance as syria's president says the strikes will only increase his resolve we'll go live to the syrian capital for the latest. and welcome to the program the united states and its allies britain and france have carried out airstrikes on suspected chemical weapons facilities in syria president trump says they were in response to last week's alleged gas attack in the syrian town of duma which left dozens of civilians debt missiles began hitting targets in and around the cities of damascus and homs within minutes of its announcement.

lights flare over the syrian capital damascus as western missiles fall. in a wave of strikes launched from naval vessels and the year the u.s. banks my french and british forces bomb syria. they were aiming to knock out three targets related to syria's chemical weapons program. two facilities in the capital damascus and one in the western city of homs . syria state t.v. broadcast footage of the building it said was a research center hit by a mistrial the joint military action came a week after a gas attack on civilians which was thought to have been carried out by the forces of syrian president bashar assad. we are prepared to sustain this response 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 the mass murder of innocent men women and children. this is the largest display of joint force by western nations against the assad regime and were significantly bigger than us strikes on syria a year ago. set up at us you visit is objective this operation targeted objectives belonging to the clandestine chemical program of syria plus the main research center of this program and to import and production science has been struck. through these targets we have the capacity of syria

to develop and to produce chemical weapons. hope or do you really desire machining to less siri get at don't. despite the strikes britain's prime minister made it renewed calls for diplomacy. there is a wider question of the future political solution for syria and that is a matter that we will continue to pursue in diplomatic channels and diplomatic and political channels with our international partners and allies after the strikes some assad supporters hold noisy demonstrations of defiance in damascus meanwhile syria rebels fighting the assad regime in the western strikes were a fast as long as assad stayed in power. and with us in a syrian capital as british freelance journalist danny makki danny it's good to see you we've seen some of the images of these airstrikes can you tell us what you saw overnight from the ground. what it was quite

a lot about four thirty in the morning yesterday a series of different strikes on areas within the syrian capital damascus awoke me and it worked most of the residents of this of this capital city initially around ten different rockets were. landed within areas within the vicinity of the capital in eastern damascus and that is a research facility called benazir where it's known to have had a history of of the related chemical weapons. program of production another strike was reported in a military airport and latterly the final area which was stark if there was a research facility and it's a huge complex of numerous buildings military academies aboard trees and that was in the western part of the city just a stone's throw away from the area which i'm currently based and now from the beginning of the attack there was different phases for the first phase it was about

twelve rockets which landed in missiles and in response to that syrian air defenses began to launch s. two hundred missiles and tracer fire from a show and you saw anti-aircraft missiles send and fire these rockets incoming and it up the same particular moment of time there was a there was a pause for about three minutes before another wave of western attacks targeted b. three different sites now towards the end of the fifty minute long broach of bombardment which damascus was subjected to in the early hours of obvious that they evening and the last base of the last military site to be to have been struck was one which is on the western outskirts of the of the capital now is very close to where i was from and when the rockets landed in that particular area it was if the rockets had landed nearby because of the fact that it was very dark because of the fact that it was in the middle of the night where there weren't many sounds of who the rockets could be heard all across damascus in what is essentially. precedented

by the u.s. to target damascus for the first time since since the conflict is essentially started and the matter of the fact is that residents of woken up shocked there were there was really no what was happening and they were surprised because no one was expecting this particular attack to happen at this particular moment in time but people had assessed and seen the recent combinations by western governments after the that's chemical weapons attack and there was a sense of the escalation that the russians were going to take this diplomatically on board and there's going to be some sort of reproach and a solution but little did we did we know based in here in damascus was that the u.s. what was going to target to date on the set of despite the fact that today the chemical weapons investigators actually meant to be entering duma to investigate the alleged chemical weapons attack in the eastern suburbs and you mention that the people that there was maybe not so much some surprise i mean the u.s. president has none ssion at this could be

a possibility how are they reacting in the earlier report that we saw we saw them taking to the streets. well definitely the initial the initial reaction from residents in damascus was one of panic of nobody knowing what was happening but as the one hour long barrage of sensually finished many of these residents pro-government residents in particular took to the streets they went to a square which is in the center of damascus and began to stay dry at least in support of the syrian government came out saying the u.s. attacks which happened in the early hours of yesterday evening so the message from people in damascus was that life is continuing as normal is that these attacks really haven't broken our backs here that will continue to support our government and if you can see that the president he hates uploaded a photo a video in fact those of syrian president bashar al assad going into work this morning at nine o'clock as per usual as if nothing had happened so there is a message from damascus that we will continue as normal and of normality but i can

definitely tell you that in the early hours of yesterday evening the situation was anything but normal the one hour period of the bombardment which the damascus was subjected to there was a series of of panic of panic within the city of people not really understanding what was happening and it took a while for the information to release the pain if you look further north in syria just to finish you've got the strikes were allegedly on the home somehow where in how much chemical a suspected facility with relation to chemical production was hit in the sea off and another one in homs was also talk about it but just as a final note definitely the syrian air defenses had been went into action as soon as the attacks took place and there are reports suggesting that thirteen rockets were initially down from syrian air defenses now that is it consistency with the reports in the sounds of air defenses which i heard yesterday these reports of even stretch to suggest that seventy rockets have been down that maybe to jackie

aeration but what we do know for a fact and it's filmed by state television today is that some of these weapons were intercepted on their way and it landed in different areas around syria danny mcintyre mask thank you very much. for more on this story we go to washington now our w. bureau chief alexander phenomena is standing by trump tweeted mission accomplished just a short while ago but has also threatened further action in the future should it be necessary was the administration's long term plan here. well you know the problem is and that's what many experts here told me that this administration doesn't seem to have a long term plan it doesn't seem to have a coherent strategy on syria president strums goal is to defeat this all called islamic state and then to pull out of syria and he thinks that this goal has almost been achieved at the same time he no felt that it was in the u.s. interest to launch this strike against syria to deter assad regime

from using chemical weapons again about what happens if bashar al assad uses chemical weapons again that would mean that you as a would have to really act and that's a red line and that's something that president said he would never do something that he said he would never do but he also did not go to congress for approval prior to this assault are people questioning the legality of these airstrikes yes of course there are people questioning the legality of these strikes particularly democrats on capitol hill senator. came for example set of that launching the military action against syria without congress's approval was illegal and there is a number of senators and congressmen on capitol hill who feel in the same way and

who say that it's important for them to learn more about trump's goals in syria but also in iraq and also in of or regions of the world xander phenomena in washington thank you very much. german chancellor angela merkel has joined other western leaders and voicing her support for the strikes earlier today she had this to say we support the fact that our u.s. british and french allies assume their responsibilities the military intervention was necessary and appropriate the united nations security council is set to hold an emergency session on syria strikes just a couple of hours from now following a request from russia in a statement released by the kremlin russian president vladimir putin slammed the united states french and british strikes as an act of aggression that would worsen the humanitarian catastrophe in syria and he repeated the russian position that

last saturday's alleged gas attack in duma was a fake and this comes as investigators more global chemical weapons watchdog are due to start their fact finding mission into that attack syria and its allies deny carrying it out and say the western air strikes are aimed at hindering the investigation by the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons the attack and too much killed dozens of civilians. it's been almost a week since their cries shank's the world. suffocated syrian children gasping for air there among hundreds of victims of a suspected poison gas attack allegedly carried out by their government backed by russia. with military action looming moscow made the explosive claim that the attack was the work of britain. george it was really it was a budget i mean a good short never as good as you know she's going to get us to me it's the day the

russian military authorities released more evidence shows that proves a great britain was involved in the organization of these provocative act in eastern guta. pushes for your particular at a packed meeting of the united nations the face of continued with accusations flying back and forth the u.s. envoy scolded her russian counterpart. i'm in awe the silly of how you say what you say with a straight face i really really. britain is envoy rubbish the russian claims as she left the emergency meeting. which is great task it's a blatant lie it's some of the worst piece of fake news we've seen from the russia propaganda machine meanwhile in damascus chemical weapons inspectors were scheduled to start their probe into the attack on saturday and in the wake of saturday's airstrikes diplomatic sources said that security permitting the team would press

ahead with a brief visit. you're watching live from berlin i'm abbie kwassa and more coming up at the top of the hour and over get all the latest news and information on our web site dot com thanks for watching. my first boss like most sewing machine. comparable women their bones by this. minute something as simple as learning how to write them by side isn't. since i was a little girl i wanted to have a bias i built my own and it took me years to until there's. finally they gave up and winterbottom young minds like that but returns because sewing machines sewing i suppose was more appropriate for girls than rising advised.