This is an excellent article with maps of the area and graphics of the U.S. destroyers that delivered the missile strike. Scroll down for a video of the missiles striking the Syrian airbase.
Vladimir Putin has vowed to bolster Assad’s air defences following a deadly US airstrike on an airbase in Syria leading to fears the conflict will spiral into all-out war between Russia and the West.
Russian warship the Admiral Grigorovich – armed with cruise missiles and a self-defence system – is docking in Syria today after it was immediately diverted from the Black Sea following Donald Trump’s airstrike on al-Shayrat military airfield near Homs.
The US military fired 59 tomahawk missiles at 1.40am today after the US President blamed Bashar al-Assad’s regime for a horrific nerve gas attack which killed more than 80 of the dictator’s own citizens. Footage showing burnt out shelters and hangars and a damaged runway was cheered by tearful Syrians hoping that Trump’s intervention would lead to Assad being overthrown.
World leaders praised the US strikes this morning and urged Putin to hold urgent talks with Trump to prevent the Syria crisis escalating into a wider world conflict.
Putin called it an ‘illegal act of aggression’ and ripped up an agreement to avoid mid-air clashes between Russian and US fighter jets over Syria.
As an immediate act of payback, Russian or Syrian planes once again bombed the town of Khan Sheikhoun, the scene of Tuesday’s horrific chemical gas attack, witnesses and monitoring groups in the rebel-held area claimed.
This morning, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, speaking alongside German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, said: ‘We do not want an escalation. We have to stop the hypocrisy. If Russia is acting in good faith it should stop and negotiate.
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Pentagon officials said that the airfield was being used to store chemical weapons and was a base for Syrian air forces – including the aircraft that conducted the chemical weapons attack.