Bombs rained on Khan Sheikhun, killing at least 85 people, a third of them children, a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said most had died from the effects of the gas — officials later said it was a banned nerve agent, sarin — adding that dozens more suffered respiratory problems and other symptoms like foaming from the mouth.

A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer fires a tomahawk land attack missile in Mediterranean Sea as part of a cruise missile strike against Syria on April 7, 2017.

Early on April 7, the U.S. responded by ring 59 cruise missiles at the airfield from where Bashar al-Assad’s regime supposedly launched the chemical attack. Russia, which has backed the Assad regime in the Syrian war, threatened the U.S. with “negative consequences”, even sending an armed warship to the east Mediterranean Sea, putting it on the path of direct confrontation with U.S. navy destroyers, according to reports.