UK strikes in Homs

UK strikes in Homs
Gen Dunford said the US had specifically identified targets that would "mitigate" the risk of Russian casualties. But the Pentagon said that Russia - which has forces on the ground in Syria in support of the government - had not been given advance notice of the targets.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed British involvement, saying there was "no practicable alternative to the use of force".
But she also said the strikes were not about "regime change".

Media captionMay: 'We are acting together with our allies'
UK strikes carried out by four Tornado jets hit one of the targets mentioned by the Pentagon - a military site near the city of Homs which is believed to have housed precursor materials for chemical weapons, according to the UK ministry of defence.

French President Emmanuel Macron also confirmed his country's participation in the operation.
"Dozens of men, women and children were massacred with chemical weapons," he said of the Douma incident a week ago - adding that "the red line had been crossed".

Media captionUnverified video shows children being treated after the alleged gas attack

Analysis: Will this time be different?
Jonathan Marcus, defence correspondent
Image copyrightREUTERS
This attack was more significant than the US strike against a Syrian air base a little over a year ago, but at first sight seems more limited than President Trump's rhetoric may have suggested.
Last year some 59 missiles were fired. This time a little over double that number were used.
The strikes are over for now, but there was a clear warning that if the Assad regime resorts to chemical weapons again then further strikes may well follow.
Care was taken, say the Americans, to avoid both Syrian and "foreign" - for that read Russian - casualties.
But the fundamental questions remain. Will President Assad be deterred?
Last year's US strike failed to change his behaviour. This time, will it be any different?

Syria has denied carrying out the Douma attack and its ally, Russia, had warned that Western military strikes would risk starting a war.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has dispatched a fact-finding mission to the site of the alleged attack in Syria. Investigators were due to start their probe later on Saturday.
Sana, Syria's official state news agency, called the Western action "a flagrant violation of international law".
"The American, French and British aggression against Syria will fail," it said.
The Syrian presidency has tweeted a short video of Bashar al-Assad walking into his office at 09:00 local time with the caption: "Morning of steadfastness."
Double the missiles
A US official told Reuters news agency that Tomahawk cruise missiles were being used against multiple locations in Syria.
Secretary Mattis also said the scale of the strikes was about "double" what was launched in April 2017 after a chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed more than 80 people.

The strikes were ordered "on targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities" of the Syrian government, Mr Trump said.
On Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, he said: "These are not the actions of a man, they are the crimes of a monster instead."
British-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, suggested that more targets than the three listed by the Pentagon had been hit.
It said western forces had struck "scientific research centres, several military bases, and the bases of the Republican Guard and Fourth Division in the capital Damascus and around it."
One Damascus resident told BBC News: "It was mayhem above us."
"I saw more than 20 anti-air missiles launched. They'd fly really high then start weaving across, like they were following their target.
"I didn't see the cruise missiles, but I saw some falling debris nearby."