US Missiles pound Syrian air base

The United States fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Syria overnight in response to what it believes was a chemical weapons attack that killed more than 100 people.

At least six people were killed, Syria claimed, but the Pentagon said civilians were not targeted and the strike was aimed at a military airfield in the western province of Homs.

The action completed a policy reversal for President Donald Trump — who once warned America to stay out of the conflict — and drew anger from Damascus and its main ally, Russia.

The missiles were launched from the USS Ross and the USS Porter in the Mediterranean Sea toward Shayrat Airfield. American officials believe it was used by the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad to carry out a strike on Tuesday involving chemical weapons that resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people. “Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children,” Trump said in remarks from Mar-a-Lago, his family compound in Palm Beach, Florida.

“It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.”

The president also called on other countries to end the bloodshed in Syria. US officials told NBC

News that aircraft and infrastructure at the site were hit, including the runway and gas fuel pumps.

Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a spokesperson for the Defense Department, said initial assessments showed that the airfield was severely damaged, reducing Syria’s capability to deliver chemical weapons. The strike provoked an angry response Russia, which is backing the Assad regime in its six-year civil war against a patchwork of rebel factions and other groups, including ISIS.

Both regime and rebel forces have committed repeated war crimes, according to a United Nations report last month, with airstrikes by Russian and Syrian jets in particular “claiming hundreds of lives and reducing hospitals, schools and markets to rubble.”