Russia, Iran Say Trump Crossed 'Red Line'

Amman: A joint command center made up of the forces of Russia, Iran and Hezbollah supporting Syrian Arab Army on Sunday said the US strike on a Syrian air base on Friday crossed "red lines" and it would respond to any new aggression and increase its support for its ally.

The United States fired dozens of cruise missiles at a Syrian air base on Friday from which it said a deadly chemical weapons attack had been launched earlier in the week, escalating the US role in Syria and drawing criticism from Assad's allies including Russia and Iran.

"What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines. From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well," said the statement published by the group on media outlet Elam al Harbi (War Media).

Meanwhile Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Monday warned that further US strikes on Syria as threatened by American and other Western officials could push the region into a "very dangerous" situation. 

Rouhani told a news conference in Tehran that a US missile strike against a Syrian airbase last week was "basically wrong" which "benefited terrorism." 

"A repeat of such an action could be very dangerous for the region," he said.  

"America did this once, but will it go unanswered next time? Russians have said that a confrontation was only a few inches away. They are quite right, if the missiles had hit a few hundred meters higher or lower, it could have led to a major confrontation," Rouhani added. 

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, meanwhile, blamed Russian inaction for helping fuel the chemical weapons attack it had reacted to, saying Moscow had failed to carry out a 2013 agreement to secure and destroy chemical weapons in Syria.

He said the United States expected Russia to take a tougher stance against Syria by rethinking its alliance with Assad because "every time one of these horrific attacks occurs, it draws Russia closer into some level of responsibility."

Rebels and residents in northwestern Idlib province said jets conducted eight raids on Sunday on the town of Khan Sheikhoun where the chemical attack took place but no casualties were reported.

Raids hit several other rebel-held towns including Saraqeb and Sarmin in the province, where the rebels and activists said incendiary bombs were dropped.

In the southern city of Daraa, jets believed to be Russian escalated strikes on extremist rebel groups on Saturday and Sunday in an attempt to roll back their gains in the Manshiya district where battles have been raging for nearly two months.

Putin, Rouhani speak

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran's Hassan Rouhani said in a phone call that aggressive US actions against Syria were not permissible and violated international law, the Kremlin said on Sunday.

The two leaders also called for an objective investigation into an incident involving chemical weapons in Syria's Idlib and said they were ready to deepen cooperation to fight terrorism, the Kremlin said in a statement on its website.

The joint command center also said the presence of U.S troops in northern Syria where Washington has hundreds of special forces helping the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to oust Daesh was "illegal" and that Washington had a long-term plan to occupy the area.

The regional alliance said the U.S. cruise missile strikes on a Syrian base which Washington said was involved in a chemical attack that killed dozens of civilians would not deter their forces from "liberating" all of Syrian territory.

In Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei said the U.S. missile strike was a "a strategic error, and a repeat of the mistakes of the past," the state news agency IRNA reported.

"What the Americans did was a strategic mistake and error and they are repeating the [same] mistakes as their predecessors," he said.

"The Islamic Republic has shown that ... it does not back off and its people and officials ... do not retreat in the face of threats," said Ayatollah Khamenei.

"Former American officials created Daesh [terrorists] or helped them, and the current officials are also strengthening Daesh or a group similar to it," Iranian leader added.