US Warships Attack Syria, Israel Celebrates

WASHINGTON/DAMASCUS: The United States has fired dozens of cruise missiles at a Syrian army base with President Donald Trump declaring he acted in America's "vital national security interest" against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Sharply escalating the US military role in Syria, two US warships fired 60 cruise missiles from the eastern Mediterranean Sea against the airbase controlled by Syrian army allegedly in response to the poison gas attack on Tuesday in a al-Qaeda held area.

60 Tomahawk missiles hit al-Shayrat air base in Homs province in western Syria.

Facing his biggest foreign policy crisis since taking office in January, Trump took the toughest direct US action yet in Syria's six-year-old civil war, raising the risk of confrontation with Russia and Iran, Syria's two main backers.

"Tonight, I ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched," US President Donald Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Homs Governor Talal Barazi said US missile strikes serve the goals of "armed terrorist groups" and Daesh, reiterating that the "aggression" will not prevent the Syrain government from "fighting terrorism."

"This attack will not prevent us from continuing fighting terrorism. We are not surprised to see America and Israel supporting this terrorism," Barazi said in a phone interview with state television.

Bolivia requested a closed-door UN Security Council to be held on Friday. Russia also said it wall call the 15-nation body into session.

West backed rebel groups welcomed the strike and urged Washington to neutralize Syria's ability to carry out air raids.

"We hope for more strikes... and that these are just the beginning," coalition spokesman Ahmad Ramadan was quoted by the French news agency AFP as saying. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office celebrated the attack with an early morning statement, saying he supported "strong message" sent by US strikes. 

Israel, which is widely viewed as a supporter of terror groups in Syria, has time and again carried out airstrikes on the Syrian territory under various pretexts.

The missiles were reportedly fired from the USS Ross and USS Porter, Navy destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

"These missiles targeted aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage areas, ammunition supply bunkers, air defense systems, and radars," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told reporters.

A Syrian military source was quoted by state TV as saying that the US missile strike on the Syrian air base has "led to losses."

Trump ordered the strike just a day after he pointed the finger at Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the deadly attack which killed at least 70 people in the town of Khan Shaykhun in Idlib.

The US backed militants active in the area and some Western officials blamed the attack on the Syrian military whereas Damascus rejected the allegation, insisting it "has never used them [chemical weapons], anytime, anywhere, and will not do so in the future."

'Trump doesn't need approval of Congress to strike Syria'

On Thursday, hawkish Republican Senator John McCain said Trump does not need to ask for the approval of lawmakers if he wanted to strike Syria, but still Congress should pass a new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF).

"We need an Authorization for Use of Military Force. We got to update it, we got to make it realistic and we got to have Congress, the representatives of the American people, involved in some of these decisions," McCain said during an interview.

"I am going to work with Sen. Tim Kaine [D-Va.] and others to try to come up with one," he added. 

Speaking just before the strikes were announced, Russia's deputy U.N. envoy, Vladimir Safronkov, warned of "negative consequences" if the United States went ahead with military action, saying the blame would be "on shoulders of those who initiated such doubtful and tragic enterprise."