Syria strikes - as it happened: Chemical weapons inspectors have entered Douma, Syrian state media says

Chemical weapons inspectors have entered Douma, according to Syrian state media.

A team from the OPCW arrived on Tuesday, a day before Russia had indicated they would.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani agreed on Tuesday to maintain the cooperation between Turkey, Iran and Russia for a political solution to the conflict in Syria, a source in Mr Erdogan's office said.

Mr Erdogan also told Mr Rouhani in a telephone call that actions to increase tensions in the region should be avoided, after US, British and French forces carried out air strikes on Syria over the weekend.

Reuters

Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the House, has said Donald Trump "did the right thing" in ordering air strikes on Syrian chemical weapons targets.

Mr Ryan, who has announced he will not seek re-election when his current term as a member of Congress expires, added: "I was also impressed he made a multilateral effort."

Just a quick re-post of our defence editor's analysis of the US-UK "special relationship" in light of the weekend's air strikes on Syria.

Saudi Arabia has said it is willing to send troops to Syria if a wider coalition effort is proposed, according to the country's state-run media.

It follows a report in the Wall Street Journal that Donald Trump was seeking to offload some of the US military effort in Syria to Arab nations.

National security adviser John Bolton spoke to a senior Egyptian official about the plan, the paper reported.

Doctors in Douma are being threatened at gunpoint to say there was no chemical weapons attack in the Syrian town, or their children will be killed, an MP has said.

Labour's Geraint Davies raised the claim from his constituent in the Commons.

In an intervention on Tory MP Richard Benyon, the Swansea West MP said: "He may be interested to know that a Syrian doctor in Swansea approached me to say that his wife's family ... were under a gas attack where their two-year-old died in front of them.

"He's now telling me that the doctors in Douma are saying that the Syrians, at the point of a gun, are saying unless you give a testimony, doctor, that there wasn't a gas attack, we'll be killing your children."

PA

The UK parliament has made clear its support for Prime Minister Theresa May's decision to launch air strikes against Syria, her spokesman has said.

The government won a symbolic vote in the Commons on the broader issue of whether it should consult MPs before taking military action.

The 317 to 256 vote went against a call by Jeremy Corbyn to protest Ms May's decision to launch strikes against Syria without first seeking approval. 

Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni has told his country's new parliament Italy stands firmly by the United States, France and Britain in the decision to launch strikes against Syria aimed at disabling the use of chemical weapons. 

Mr Gentiloni said: ''Italy is not a neutral country that chooses each time which side to take between the Atlantic alliance and Russia. It is a coherent ally of the United States, and not of this or that American administration." 

Italy's role in any military action has been particularly politically sensitive given the impasse in forming a new government after last month's elections ended with a hung parliament. The leader of the center-right coalition, Matteo Salvini, has expressed opposition to the strikes. 

Mr Gentiloni said Italy gave logistical support to the operation from the joint air base in Aviano on the condition that ''no actions aimed at striking Syria would depart from our territory." 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on the Syrian government to ensure international chemical weapons inspectors are able to work without restrictions. 

It came after Syria's state news agency said inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons had reached the town of Douma to investigate the suspected chemical attack on 7 April.

Mr Guterres said "it's the obligation of the Syrian government to provide all the conditions for them to work without any restrictions". 

He stopped short of confirming whether the inspectors were able to reach Douma, telling reporters in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday the UN had done "everything possible to make sure that the OPCW experts will be able to get to Douma sooner rather than later". 

A Russian diplomat has said the missile strikes on Syria at the weekend were an "act of aggression" that risked starting wider conflict.

The ambassador of the Russian Federation to Ireland warned that Russia – the Syrian regime's principle backer – is losing "the last bit of trust" it had with the west, describing this as a "very dangerous development".

Speaking at a press conference in Dublin, Yury Filatov said the suggestion that Russia or Syria tampered with evidence to cover up the Douma attack was "absolutely ridiculous".

Mr Filatov told reporters: "We have to state that the situation around Syria has deteriorated significantly.

"Obviously that is the result of the reckless actions by Washington, London and Paris.

"What is going right now is they are making every effort possible to look for the face-saving exit of the situation they themselves created.

"They are trying to whitewash their action. There is pretty much smoke around the whole thing.

"We have to call things for what they really are. The fact remains that on April 14 the United States supported by the UK and France launched an air strike against military and civilian targets in Syria.

"That was an act of aggression against a sovereign state. It was done without mandate from the United Nations Security Council and in clear violation of the UN charter or any other conceivable international law.

"We certainly condemn that in most resolute terms."

Mr Filatov added: "The attack we have witnessed (air strikes) certainly brought the whole situation to the brink of a wider conflict which is in nobody's interests."

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has flatly denied that Russia had "tampered" with the evidence and insisted there was no proof that chemical weapons had even been used in Douma.