decisions on the iran deal in the next few months, the underlying premise of the obama administration entering that deal was that to bring iran into the world community and be responsible actor. they are not. >> there is another deadline looming. we will talk about that more in a minute. stick around. we're going to wrap our panel for now. >> i'm in washington. this is a fox news alert. the united launching military strikes in syria. attacks in coordinates in response to present sure assad's chemical attack against the people. president trump announcing targeted strikes late tonight. there were reports explosions lit up the syrian capitol. we begin team coverage with our chief white house correspondent john roberts. >> good morning to you shannon. senior administrative officials say the president's reactions

were pleased by the initial appearance of success but the performance of the men and women of the military and launching those attacks against syria targets and in addition the cooperation of the uk and statements by the president and the leadership of the uk and france all saying it had come to the point where there was no other choice but to take military action. listen to what the president said. >> it was a significant escalation in a pattern of chemical weapons used by that very terrible regime. the evil and the despicable attack left mothers and fathers innocent children thrashing in pain and gasping for air. these are not the actions of a man. they are crimes of a monster. >> he offset a sharp message for russia and iran.

earlier this weekend again tonight the president said the ultimate responsibility for the attack in douma lies at the feet of vladimir putin the president saying in a statement 2013 president putin and his government promised the world they would guarantee the elimination of syria's chemical weapons. the president also said tonight playing bad cop good cop all the same time the president reaching out to iran and russia saying maybe we can have a good relationship. maybe not but it's the behavior of iran in particular russia that needs to change. here again is the president. >> two i ran into russia i asked what kind of nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women and children? the nations of the world can be judged by the friends they keep. no nation can succeed in the long run by promoting rogue

states, brutal tyrants and murderers koetters. russia must decide if it will continue down this dark path or if it will join with civilized nations as a force for stability and peace. >> the new russian ambassador ended with a terse response to the president's night on twitter writing quote a predesigned scenario is being implemented again. we are being threatened. we warned such actions will not be left without consequences all responsibility with washington and london and paris. the white house tonight issuing a call to action in syria putting pressure on syria and the nations that support syria do a number of things including declaring all aspects of syria's chemical weapons program destroyed the remaining stockpiles of chemical weapons dismantle the chemical weapons program and allow secure and

unfettered access of the opcw teen the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons to investigate the douma attacks. we are told the president made the final decision about military action yesterday and way back in the beginning of the week there were strong indications that that's what you want to do. i'm told he made the decision yesterday and gave the order tonight. a plan of attack right away was reached by consensus i am told with the president's national security team also the uk and france. everybody signed off on it tonight. >> john roberts live at the white house. thank you john for defense secretary mattis speaking a short while ago giving us ago giving a so late lamprey that spring and correspondent jennifer with details from the pentagon. >> it is dawn now in damascus and we will start to see some of that damage assessment we just heard from defense secretary mattis and general dunford at

the pentagon. they were joined by their colleagues from britain and france who were involved in the allied response to the chemical weapons attack. we were told that chemical weapons facilities were the only target of pentagon officials saying they wanted to minimize civilian casualties. secretary mattis said they used a little overt double the number of weapons this year compared to last. mattis said we are not out to get involved in the syrian civil war. he described tonight strike as proportionate to the last about one hour long and began at 9:00 p.m. eastern. jenner--general dunford said they tried to engage tonight but there were no allies and he also said they did not give russia a heads up about the target. >> with regard to the russian concerns we specifically identify these targets to mitigate the risk of russian

forces being involved in we used our normal deconfliction channels that are active this week to work through the airspace issues and so forth. we did not do any coordination with the russians on the strikes nor did we pre-notified them. >> the strikes are over for now in about three targets we are told. a scientific research center and damascus a facility where they produce and test chemical weapons according to the pentagon. there was also a chemical storage facility in west holmes about two hours north of damascus and another chemical weapons storage facility near homs. assad lost extensive chemical weapons. mattis said this is a one-time shot in less assad does not get the message. he said he felt he had enough evidence yesterday to determine if the syrian regime had employed chemical weapons.

>> we have the intelligence level of confidence that we needed to conduct the tests. >> as far as the actual chemical use was a nerve agent, was a chlorine? do you have a sense of what it was? >> we are very much aware of one of the agents. there may have been more than one agent used. we are not clear on that yet. we know at least one chemical agent was used. >> we are very confident the chlorine was used. we are not ruling out sarin right now. >> secretary mattis said he expected a disinformation campaign by syria, russia iran and the pentagon will have a press briefing tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. eastern here the pentagon with his spokesman dana white and lieutenant general the director of the staff. >> jennifer griffin live at the pentagon thank you very much. let's bring in tonight's panel for reaction to former navy s.e.a.l. dave sears "fox news" contributor former utah congressman jason chaffetz.

an oklahoma congressman steve russell who is on the armed services committee and a retired army lieutenant colonel. it's great to have you with us gentlemen. general i will start with you to the president said this is about two things a strong deterrent against the further use of chemical weapons in a message not only to syria but those responsible for supporting equipping and financing the criminal assad regime. how do you think the message went over tonight? >> i think you went over very well nationally and abroad. we have not two of our strongest allies in the uk and france behind us with military power and resources than at the end of the day shannon what the president is doing is living up to our national security strategy where we talk about two fundamental underlying principles through one is prevention of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction chemical biological and nuclear

and the others as the rules-based order based on the rule of law. both of these have been violated by syria and their patrons in russia and iran. i think the president's comments was, his statement was very strong. he separated strategically russia said back away begin help you economically but if you want this kind of friend and i talked about the alliance forming against the arab versus persian alliance and then tactically talked about what we are doing there and why we are doing it. i think it was brilliant the way he laid it out and of course we have this list now of things we are demanding from syria and its politics by another means. that's a war is so i think it's very low receive. i think he was very well executed and we are there with a news around their neck and we will lose net a little bit and we will stay there and if they don't accept our demands then we

can tighten that news again. >> congressman russell i want to bring you in on this idea of calling up people in the region and the president specifically mentioning saudi arabia qatar and ensuring iran doesn't profit from being in this area on isis issues. what would you like to see from them? >> one of the things we have seen since december is the border forces we have been training and jordan has also been working well with already. whate are seeing is a coalition of the arab nations and they realize persian influence coming out of tehran is very dangerous. so there are some unacceptable things and we can't allow them on the border. this is one of the reasons israel and the dangers that has there. there are a lot of folks that do not want to see russia iran and

a barbaric assad using chemical weapons. it destabilizes the entire region and turkey also being involved. >> david what do you make of our israel stands in this whole conversation and what is the best potential outcome for them with regard to syria? >> i think israel is surrounded. they are going to look towards that first. they don't want iran lined up on their border there to enable hezbollah. they know that's going to be problematic so they will try to stay out of it a little bit. they will sit back and go okay we are led you are handling it. we will do our limited strikes. >> the president talked about the fact that he wants our role to be limited. this isn't about getting involved in the civil war or the assad regime. strict about the chemical weapons. the president made it clear he does want to stay there and he said it again tonight.

we'll will be the key for us going forward? >> a week ago the president was talking about withdrawing troops in the region but then a chemical weapons strikes happen. the president was very tempered. when we look back on the second we will look at a president who was very determined. i think his heart is in the right place. he builds a good coalition and i'm proud we were able to join with france and the uk. think we have to ask questions about where were the other partners? where were the likes of germany and what not in why weren't they on our side and some using some of their military might when we prop them up and help them in so many different ways. ultimately i think the president took a calculated measured strike. as we look at the assessment is daylight breaks in damascus and other parts of the country but i think the president sent a strong message. certainly different than barack obama who did nothing.

i think the people wake up and say donald trump's a serious president and he's not afraid to pull the trigger for needs to. >> tonight leaders of the pentagon saying it was a single strike. they want to see how assad received their response to message. panel stick around. we have more details on airstrikes in syria and what comes next right after the break. it's easy to think that all money managers are pretty much the same. but while some push high commission investment products, fisher investments avoids them. some advisers have hidden and layered fees. fisher investments never does.

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the sun is rising over damascus. let's go to mike tobin and jerusalem monitoring in the region. >> shannon we have images coming showing supporters of charla

saad taking to the streets dancing in the streets waving syrian flags showing pictures of president assad shouting pro regime slogans. keep in mind this is coming to your alcanar television. he gets and in all the complexities of the different alliances. it is run by hezbollah. that's the militant organization that's entirely funded by an entirely loyal to iran. iran is allied with the bashar assad regime and that should give you an idea of the disposition of alcanar television as they broadcast the images. with the sun now up we are starting to get the first assessment of the damage. most of the information about the assessments are coming from television. two of the targets that were hit our targets that were hit by israel more than once over the last couple of years. the implication is they were hit

without consequence. it's reported a lot of the facilities are the targets were hit there was plenty of warning in plenty of time to empty out those facilities. they are reporting as far as their information right now that they know of no casualties thus far. now we do have images of the crowds cheering. i will put up the screen for you and that's coming from albin are television operated by hezbollah it does show there are supporters of char al-assad that have taken to the streets to keep in mind when you're talking about almon are television that they are loyal to hezbollah and hezbollah is loyal to iran which is allied with the regime. getting back to the assessment of damage on the ground they are trying to indicate that the strikes were without effect. the disposition headquartered

out of lebanon. they are very thorough and have a lot of staff on the ground in syria and a lot of connections however they are reporting largely has been pro regime. yet assume that the information coming out will be supportive of the regime to the best of their abilities. syria state tv reported as far as the targets that were hit at least one of them was a scientific research facility for deruyter said at least three of the scientific research facilities were hit or the pentagon chooses different words for this research facility. they say its research and development labs for the chemical weapons and that's why they were targeted. the pentagon confirmed something that we heard through syrian state tv that they are defense did deactivate at the start of the strikes or glow was not confirmed through the pentagon was the fact that state tv tomahawks were shot out of the

skyper what we heard were air defenses were largely ineffective and they have no permission about the u.s. hardware being kept by the syrian air defenses activated during the course of this. no tomahawks event overshadow the sky. we have information about this facility in homs. the indication was that was the military storage facility and we know there are sources israeli intelligence did provide some of the information of stars targets that were chosen that they were working with the united states throughout the course of developing the targets prior to the strikes. again so far we know of no casualties from the strikes of last night. the assessment is being done in windows is on are reporting the whole thing was overdone--over indicted 15 minutes. >> mike sill then life on the ground. let's get back to our go to

experts "fox news" contributor from utah congressman jason chaffetz retired brigadier general anthony tator and congressman steve russell a retired army lieutenant colonel. congressman i will start with you. interesting notes that mike makes me giddy talks about the fact that these are targets that have been hit previously. talk to another g.o.p. lawmaker on the hill saying he thought the president promised something big and wasn't going to do something was big. he was concerned it would be this kind of strike that was awesome in nature. the president threatened by the tweet and he worried without something of that magnitude people would see his words is meaningless and it--i think it will have an impact. it's going after the capacity and their ability to replenish chemical weapons stocks. you can be certain not only will

there be ground intelligence shared with israeli sources but also you can be certain they will be monitoring these targets. they were moving them around if they know after telegraphing announcement they were hoping to bring people diplomatically to it different position. all of that being monitored you can be certain that these facilities being hit and struck were diminished in capacity. >> general can you characterize for us we know the one bombers were used. you characterize what assets we have in the region and even though the pentagon said for now this is it. they say they stand ready to follow up if necessary. >> shannon what we have got in the region is a carrier strike group in the mediterranean now and we have got air force base is all throughout europe and the middle east.

you can have b-1 bombers, b-2 bombers and they have got the different naval jets and aircraft from the air force that will fly combat air patrol and will provide cover for our bombers coming in and that will actually provide what is called air supremacy. the first one to establish air superiority and then you go to air supremacy where you are not threatened at all. the very first targets certain where the sa two missiles the russian built missiles that can shoot 80000 feet into the sky that are now mostly i would assume destroyed and then there's a variety of lesser capable air defense missiles that the syrians have provided by the russians that were probably targeted in the very first wave of attacks. then their command the controls of a can't communicate and coordinate a response in the go

after the targets that we were just talking about where you really want to hit. first you have to clear the way using your jets and your bombers and then you have your b-1 and b-2 bombers with your joint direct attack munitions, very precision guided munitions that penetrate deep into the concrete hardened facilities. that is kind of how this i think laid out and of course the tomahawk cruise missiles probably one in first on the air defense because they are unmanned and that is the most risky phase of this initially. of course it's all risky but the initial phase is the most risky where we have these surface-to-air missiles that we need to destroy it. i would think that's probably the sequence. >> the pentagon said they will give a full assessment tomorrow morning about how those missiles were were not intercepted.

there were claims about that as well as whether there were damage to our assets of the senate. i'm told what we are looking at is video of some of the french get getting ready for the mission and in the launching of the mission. jason how important is it that we were able to get together with our allies, the uk and france and talking about germany missing from this and other big names. there was support from canada, supporting this. >> it's very important particularly france and the uk. that sends a strong message to europe and to the world. this is not the united states going it alone. the president tweeted in gave an emotional response to what assad had done to his own people but it probably took a couple of extra days to put the coalition together. they take on their own missions

in their own goals. it's a very strong message. you have the french president coming to the united states. soon. it's good to have that good strong coalition moving forward. since the right message. >> the pentagon saying tonight one of the keys about being supersize was to minimize any possibility of civilian casualties. >> absolutely right you want to have a precise but it's also avoid weakening assad too much said the rebels are emboldened and the opposition is emboldened. i think it's also not totally just about chemical weapons. you are sending a message across the region to iran, to russia willingness to act in the context of united states. >> thank you panel. stick around, breaking news on the airstrikes in syria right after this quick break. erts about potential investment opportunities in real time.

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this is has are continuing breaking news covered a u.s. military attacks are you tonight carried out along with our allies in the uk and france. tristan trump in a primetime white house address shortly after 9:00 p.m. eastern to the precision missile strikes on key syrian targets meant to establish a global deterrence against the further use of chemical weapons. both the u.s. and france publicly saying they are convinced they can prove aside has