you're watching the news live from berlin the u.s. britain and france strike syria the joint strike targeted allegedly chemical weapons facilities overnight syrian state television has released these images purportedly showing the destruction washington says it's a response to the suspected poison gas attack by president assad's forces last week . mother who knew that it would have been about. president trump denouncing assad and now praising the u.s. military for what he calls

a perfectly executed attack reading mission accomplished. and british prime minister tourism a dispenser nation's role in the strikes and she's pointing the finger at russia of failing to hold the syrian regime accountable for its use of chemical weapons. and residents take to the streets in damascus in a show of defiance as syria's president says the strikes will only increase his country's resolve the quote pockets russia terrorism and every inch of the nation. being. unhappy clawson welcome to the program the united states and its allies britain and france have carried out air strikes on suspected chemical weapons facilities in syria u.s. 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 or around the cities of damascus and homs within minutes of his announcement. the cells launched would syria from the u.s. navy ship part of a wave of strikes by the west backed by french and british forces. they were aiming to bomb targets related to syria's chemical weapons program in the capital damascus and 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 to 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 more significantly bigger than us strikes on syria a year ago. set up at us your visit is objective this operation and targeted objectives belonging to the clandestine chemical program of syria plus the main research center of this program and two important productions science has been struck. through these time gets we have the capacity of syria to develop and to produce chemical weapons. hope or deploy

desire machine did s.u.v. get at don't. despite the strikes britain's prime minister made renewed calls for diplomacy. there is a wider question on 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 and the western strikes were a fast as long as assad stayed in power. that sentiment was echoed by residents of it led province a rebel stronghold in the northwest of the country. the u.s. strike was unsuccessful it was useless on the international stage it's of the

regime the regime computerized sofa successfully resisting the americans this strike was in the interests of the americans and not in the interests of the opposition or the syrian revolution. this strike is like all the others before it they were fruitless there will be no results until they get rid of bashar al assad and the regime might mean if they don't get rid of them there will be no results these strikes will just encourage the regime. they struck suggest theatrical there and if i wanted to help us they would have done so at the beginning of the war either they give us air defense systems or they rid us of the head of the regime the criminal basher al assad there is no hope. and just a while ago i spoke to danny makki a british syrian freelance journalist in damascus i asked him to describe the

moments when the airstrikes hit the city. four thirty in the morning yesterday a series of different strikes on areas within the camp the syrian capital damascus awoke me into work 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 because of the fact that it was very dark because of the fact that it was in the middle of the night where they won't many sounds as who the rockets could be heard all across the mascot's in what is essentially an 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 have woken up here shocked they were they were scared really know what was happening and they were surprised because no one was expecting this particular attack to happen at this particular moment in time people had assessed and seen the recent combinations by western

governments after the election 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 more 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 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 they're wise maybe not so much some surprise i mean the u.s. president has mentioned 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 essentially finished many of these residents pro-government residents in particular took to the streets they went to a million square which is in the center of damascus and began to stay druggies in

support of the syrian government is now 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 have a broken arm that will continue to support our government. that was danny makki a british syrian freelance journalist and damascus speaking to me a short time ago now for more on the story we go to washington where chief alexandra phenomena is standing by alexander good to see you trump tweeted mission accomplished just a short while ago but the pentagon has been telling journalists they hit every target at first have a listen to the director of the joint staff look at these stories carefully to minimize the risk to innocent civilians we're still conducting a more detailed damage assessment but initial indications are that we accomplish our military objectives without material interference from syria are used three words to describe this operation precise overwhelming and effective

alexandra per size overwhelming and effective are they indicating that this is over because trump said earlier that more strikes were possible. yes he said that if necessary and today as you said he tweeted mission accomplished and that's what we heard from the pentagon as well and they are quite satisfied with the mission saying that they were successful hitting those three targets hope they hoped now that there are confident that by hitting these three targets their way able to set back chemical weapons program for years so they are very satisfied with what happened and they didn't want to speculate what might happen if. we decide to use chemical weapons against anyone they feel that this is a success but what the administration's long term plan in syria. well i think the

problem is that swartz many experts told me that this administration doesn't seem to have a long term plan and a coherent strategy on syria president school is to defeat the so-called islamic state and then to withdraw american troops from syria and that's why the pentagon spokeswoman diana wyatt's today once again stressed that this remains a long term goal for the administration the question is however what happens as i said the assad regime uses chemical weapons again in that case the us was half to react and there was a very interesting question you were in this pentagon briefing today the question how trump i mean strange can explain to the american people why they have free access to a suspected chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of people and why they do

nothing in response to the fact that the assad regime killed tens of thousands by using conventional weapons ok you mentioned america the american people what about them what are they saying i mean and trump around a campaign of america first and a reluctance to engage in foreign intervention our supporters please are disappointed this hour. well i would assume that some of his hardcore supporters are not very happy with what happens in syria however we saw it last year after last year's strike against the syrian forces that they eventually supported their president and we have to say that based on previous military interventions by the united states and the reactions of americans to them we have to say that's generally speaking americans are more positive than negative

d.w. bureau chief alexandra phenomena in washington thank you very much and a statement defending her country's role in the military operation british prime minister treason make called the strikes both right and legal she also had sharp words for russia saying it was moscow's refusal to hold syria accountable that made these strikes necessary until each occasion when we have seen every sign of chemical weapons being used and to hold to the purpose it has to account has been blocked by russia 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 latest attack even making the grotesque and absurd 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. i've had a closer look at the british involvement in these strikes in syria for that we're joined by correspondent kitty logan in london kitty we just heard trees amaze say that there was no diplomatic option that force was necessary to go to parliament for approval but does she have the support from within the united kingdom for this type of military intervention. that is still being debated and that very point has been raised by the leader of the opposition labor party jeremy corby has written a letter to the prime minister asking about the legality of the air strikes which britain took part in also questioning if this was legal of course treason may the prime minister has argued that it was necessary to respond she said that chemical weapons should not be tolerated that signal has to be sent very strongly but jamie colvin arguing today that it should have perhaps gone to parliament there should be

no vote and other opposition politicians also coming forward with that reason they will address the house of commons parliament on monday but until then there are so many questions being raised about that legal question he britain also insists this isn't about regime change in syria but rather they're sending a message against the use of chemical weapons this may did link her decision to join the air strikes to the south very incident from last month and. that's right now of course russian british relations are at an all time low since that incident in soulsby i believe any chemical noting that the government here says came from russia and of course treason made today was adamant that it was a signal that chemical weapons the use of chemical weapons could not be tolerated anywhere and there are some observers who say it's because there have been so many alleged uses of chemical weapons in syria that perhaps the rest of the world including russia has thought that a green light to use these kind of weapons elsewhere in the gun but here is saying we won't tolerate that we're going to make a stronger stand and yes

a lot of people saying here that those two things may well be linked to the government now feels much stronger and much more strongly on the subject since the he at.