Last night, the United States launch some 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airbase in the Homs Province, doing considerable damage and leading Syrian officials, and their allies, to condemn the action as aggression against a sovereign country.

The airbase was not apparently all that was hit, either, with Syrian state media reporting that the missiles badly damaged several homes in the villages surrounding the airbase, and that at least nine civilians had been killed, including four children, in the course of the US attacks.

The White House has not addressed reports of civilian deaths in their attacks, instead playing up the idea that the attacks showed President Trump to be “very decisive,” and dodging questions about the consequences of launching such strikes, or what comes next.

It is all but impossible to confirm the death tolls coming out of the area around the US strikes at the moment, given the severe amount of damage caused. As with evidence for the putative gas attack that served as the pretext for the US attack, any deaths that came as a result are likely to be considered by the administration very much beside the point. Instead, the focus is likely to remain on whether the attack leads to more tension with Russia, and whether the US will keep attacking Syria, as the rebels are demanding.