Russia says that US cruise missile strikes on a Syrian air base have destroyed any prospective anti-terror alliance.

US forces fired more than 50 tomahawk missiles against targets in Syria, following the deadly chemical attack on civilians on Tuesday.



Konstantin Kosachev, head of Russia's foreign affairs committee, said any US-Russian anti-terror coalition has been "put to rest without even being born."

"Russian cruise missiles strike the terrorists, US missiles strike Syrian government forces who are spearheading the fight against the terrorists," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov was cited as saying that the Russian leader, a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, regarded the US action as "aggression against a sovereign nation" on a "made-up pretext" and as a cynical attempt to distract the world from civilian deaths in Iraq.



Mr Peskov was quoted as saying that Russia did not believe that Syria possessed chemical weapons and that the US move would inevitably create a serious obstacle to creating an international coalition to fight terrorism, an idea that Mr Putin has repeatedly pushed.

Speaking to state news agency RIA, Viktor Ozerov, head of the defence committee in the Russian Federation Council, said Russia will demand action be taken against the US.

"US strikes on (the) Syrian aviation base may undermine the efforts in the fight against terrorism in Syria. Russia will demand an urgent UN Security Council meeting after the US airstrike on Syrian aviation base," he said.

"This is an act of aggression against a UN member."

Russia also threatened the US with "negative consequences" before the attacks.

"We have to think about negative consequences, negative consequences, and all the responsibility if military action occurred will be on shoulders of those who initiated such doubtful and tragic enterprise," Russia's deputy UN envoy Vladimir Safronkov warned on Thursday (local time).

US forces have fired more than 50 tomahawk missiles against targets in Syria, following the deadly chemical attack on civilians on Tuesday.

It is the first US military action against the Syrian Government in the six-year-old Syrian civil war.

It's an action which threatens to draw Russia into a war with the US, Waikato law professor Alexander Gillespie warns.

"It escalates everything, it's incredibly dangerous," he says.

"Your nightmare scenario is Russia - the problem is that Russia is linked by defence treaties since 1972 with Syria."

Russia currently has troops and anti-air missiles stationed across Syria.

Mr Gillespie says if a US attack accidently killed Russians, things would turn out "badly - very very badly".

Russia could use their air-defence systems to deny the US access to Syrian airspace - and shoot down US aircraft.

However Mr Gillespie says that Russia will most likely wait for the right time to retaliate.

"Russia is very good at good at holding its breath and waiting," he says.

"Putin gets revenge served cold, he waits for everything to calm down."

Newshub.