Ford Williams / US Navy / AFP | In this image released by the US Navy, the guided-missile destroyer USS Porter conducts strike operations while in the Mediterranean Sea, April 7, 2017.

The US launched dozens of cruise missiles against an air base near the central Syrian city of Homs on Friday in response to a suspected gas attack on a rebel-held town earlier this week. Read our live blog to see how the day's events unfolded.

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US President Donald Trump ordered missile strikes against a Syrian airfield from which a deadly chemical weapons attack was reportedly launched, declaring that he acted in America’s “vital national security interest”. The US fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Shayrat Airfield at 8:40pm Eastern Time (00:40 GMT), according to officials.

A statement from the Kremlin called the strikes an "aggression against a sovereign nation" in violation of international law.

At least six people were killed in the strikes and the air base was almost completely destroyed, the Syrian military said. Information Minister Ramez Turjman said the strikes were limited in scope and "expected".

French President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel released a joint statement saying that Assad “bears full responsibility” for this latest development. “His continuous recourse to chemical weapons and to mass crimes cannot go unpunished,” they said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said the situation in Syria "amounts to an international armed conflict" following the strikes.



Read our live blog below to see how all the day's events unfolded.

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