Images released on Russian media show containers 'identical to those that store WMD's' at Bashar al-Assad's Shayrat Airbase.

US intelligence sources said the chemical weapons strike which killed at least 70 people was launched from the airbase just outside Homs.

The Pentagon said all 59 missiles hit their targets while it was earlier claimed one had failed.

An collage on social media suggested some of the containers damaged in last night's strike, left, looked similar to Russian chemical weapons stores from the mid 1990s

Images released following last night's attack showed these distinctive-looking containers

Commentators on social media claimed they looked similar to these chemical weapons, left

President Donald Trump gave the go-ahead for the strikes in retaliation for this week's deadly chemical attack in Syria, which the US believes was ordered by Assad.

Senior military officials said the U.S. is looking into whether Russia participated in Syria's chemical weapons attack earlier this week.

The officials claimed Russia failed to control the Syrian government's use of chemical weapons.

They said a drone belonging either to Russia or Syria was seen hovering over the site of the chemical weapons attack Tuesday after it happened. The drone returned late in the day as citizens were going to a nearby hospital for treatment. Shortly afterward, officials said the hospital was bombed.

The officials said they believe the hospital attack may have been an effort to cover up evidence of the attack.

Syria's deputy U.N. ambassador called Thursday's missile strikes as a 'barbaric, flagrant act of aggression' that will embolden 'terrorist groups" to use chemical weapons in the future.

China's U.N. ambassador never mentioned the suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, or U.S. airstrikes, at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council Friday.

Instead, Liu Jieyi focused on the need for a political solution to the six-year conflict.

Photographs have been released showing the damage caused by Thursday night's airstrike

The USS Ross, pictured, and USS Porter fired a total of 59 cruise missiles at the target

China usually supports Russia, a close ally of Syria that accused the U.S. of aggression and violation of international law with Thursday night's missile strike.

But Liu steered clear of any criticism, referring obliquely to 'some complicated new situations' in Syria in recent days which the international community must watch.

Liu says military means 'will only worsen the suffering of the Syrian people'.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations warns the U.S. is prepared to take further action in Syria but hopes it will not be necessary.

Nikki Haley told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council Friday that the United States couldn't wait following Tuesday's attack and 'took a very measured step' with its airstrikes against the Assad government.

Haley said: 'We are prepared to do more, but we hope that will not be necessary. It is time for all civilized nations to stop the horrors that are taking place in Syria and demand a political solution.'