Syria strikes - as it happened: Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons capability 'set back for years' by bombing, Pentagon says

The US says they had been made aware of Syrian missile defence activity. Syrian state TV has claimed that 13 missiles were shot down, the US says it cannot confirm any such information at this time.

The Syrian presidency tweets "Good souls will not be humiliated" after airstrikes by US, UK, France. 

The strikes by the three are believed to be over.

The US said they had told the Russians that jets were in Syrian airspace, as per the deconfliction protocol.

But they did not talk about targets, and as they relay such information daily, the Russians did not likely find anything out of the ordinary in that.

Defence Secretary James Mattis says the US has no reports of suffering any losses during the initial airstrikes on Syria Friday. 

Mr Mattis says "right now this is a one-time shot" but is not ruling out further attacks. President Donald Trump had said earlier that the campaign against the regime of Bashar Assad could be "sustained." 

The defense secretary says the air strikes were launched against several sites that he says helped provide Assad's ability to create chemical weapons. Mr Mattis says the Syrian government used chemical weapons on its own people last week. 

Mr Mattis says the Pentagon will provide more information on the attack on Saturday. 

At the Pentagon briefing, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford said the targets included a Syrian research facility and a chemical weapons storage facility.

A US official told Reuters targets were being carefully selected with the aim of damaging Assad's military's ability to conduct further gas attacks, while avoiding the risk of spreading poisonous fallout in civilian areas.

The US-led attack on Syria will be seen as limited if it is now over and there is no second round of strikes, a senior official in the regional alliance that has supported President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian war has said.

"If it is finished, and there is no second round, it will be considered limited," the official told Reuters.

Both Mr Mattis and General Dunford were at pains to point out that the latest action is larger than last year - and it does.

The big thing for the US now is how seriously Russia and Syria take what has been done.

Mr Trump will not want to be in the same position as last April, where the response of firing missiles was initially praised before making little difference in the long run.

French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement that a target of the strike was the Syrian government's "clandestine chemical arsenal." 

Mr Trump did not provide details on the joint U.S.-British-French attack, but it was expected to include barrages of cruise missiles launched from outside Syrian airspace. He described the main aim as establishing "a strong deterrent" against chemical weapons use. The Syrian government has repeatedly denied any use of banned weapons. 

The decision to strike, after days of deliberations, marked Mr Trump's second order to attack Syria. He authorised a barrage of Tomahawk cruise missiles to hit a single Syrian airfield in April 2017 in retaliation for Assad's use of sarin gas against civilians. 

Mr Mattis said the strike was "harder" on the Syrian regime than the 2017 strike and targeted "Syrian chemical weapons infrastructure." He described it as a "a one-time shot," adding, "I believe it has sent a very strong message." 

Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the US, has responded to the air strikes in Damascus and Homs. He says Moscows warnings have been left unheard and that Russia is being threatened. “We warned that such actions will not be left without consequences,” he says.

He says “insulting the president of Russia is unacceptable and inadmissible” and that the US, as a holder of chemical weapons, has no moral right to blame other countries.

John McCain, the US Senate Armed Services Committee chair:

“I applaud the President for taking military action against the Assad regime for its latest use of chemical weapons, and for signalling his resolve to do so again if these heinous attacks continue”