BREAKING NEWS - US launches airstrikes on Syria: Military fires more than 50 tomahawks on Homs airfi

BREAKING NEWS - US launches airstrikes on Syria: Military fires more than 50 tomahawks on Homs airfield just hours after Trump said 'something should happen' following gas-attack atrocity

• The military fired more than 50 tomahawk missiles at al-Shayrat military airfield
  
•  Moves comes just hours after Trump said 'something should happen' following gas-attack atrocity
  
• Trump had been weighing up the possibility of launching military strikes after 72 were killed and countless more were injured in the sarin poison gas attack
  
• 'I think what happened in Syria is a disgrace to humanity. I guess something should happen,' he said
  
• Secretary of state Rex Tillerson said earlier today that the U.S. was already exploring the enlistment of an international coalition to oust Assad
  

By Hannah Parry For Dailymail.com
Published: 21:20 EDT, 6 April 2017 | Updated: 21:44 EDT, 6 April 2017
America has launched airstrikes against a Syrian air base.
The US military fired more than 50 tomahawk missiles at the al-Shayrat military airfield near Homs on Thursday. Officials confirm that no fixed wing aircraft were involved.
The move comes just hours after President Trump denounced this week's horrific chemical weapons attack as an 'egregious crime', saying 'it shouldn’t have happened. And it shouldn't be allowed to happen.
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Trump says he ordered military strikes against Assad airbase in Syria
By Phil Stewart and Steve Holland,Reuters 26 minutes ago


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By Phil Stewart and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON/PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - U.S President Donald Trump said on Thursday he ordered a targeted military strike against an airfield in Syria from which a deadly chemical attack was launched this week.

U.S. officials said the military launched dozens of cruise missile strikes against an airbase controlled by Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's forces in response to the chemical attack on Tuesday in a rebel-held area.

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

Some 50 Tomahawk missiles were launched from U.S. Navy warships in the Mediterranean Sea, striking multiple targets - including the airstrip, aircraft and fuel stations - on an airbase in Homs, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Further details and damage estimates from the strikes, which were conducted at 8:45 p.m. EDT (0045 GMT Friday), were not immediately known.

Trump ordered the strikes just a day after he pointed the finger at Assad for this week's chemical attack, which killed at least 70 people, many of them children, in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun. The Syrian government has denied it was behind the attack.

Trump appeared to have opted for measured and targeted air attacks instead of a full-blown assault on Assad's forces and installations.

Trump, who was attending a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Florida resort, said earlier on Thursday that "something should happen" with Assad but did not specifically call for his ouster.

Officials from the Pentagon and State Department met all day to discuss plans for the missile strikes.

U.S. military action put the new president at odds with Russia, which has air and ground forces in Syria after intervening there on Assad's side in 2015 and turning the tide against mostly Sunni Muslim rebel groups.

Trump has until now focused his Syria policy almost exclusively on defeating Islamic State militants in northern Syria, where U.S. special forces are supporting Arab and Kurdish armed groups.

The risks have grown worse since 2013, when Barack Obama, Trump's predecessor, considered and then rejected ordering a cruise missile strike in response to the use of chemical weapons by Assad's loyalists.

Only last week, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the U.S. diplomatic policy on Syria for now was no longer focused on making Assad leave power, one of Obama's aims.

But Trump said on Wednesday the gas attack in Idlib province, which sparked outrage around the world, had caused him to think again about Assad.

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.”

The deployment of military force against Assad marked a major reversal for Trump.

Obama’s set a “red line” in 2012 against Assad’s use of chemical weapons. When Obama then threatened military action after a 2013 chemical attack, Trump issued a series of tweets opposing the idea, including “Do NOT attack Syria, fix U.S.A.”

Obama backtracked on the air strikes, and after the latest attack, Trump was quick to blame his Democratic predecessor for “weakness and irresolution” that emboldened Assad.

After 8 long years, we finally have a president