Syrians opposed to Bashar al-Assad have taken to applying the ruthless leader's slogan, 'We love you,' to U.S. President Donald Trump's famous Twitter picture after missile strikes on al-Shayrat air base.

The tongue-in-cheek imagery is both a jab equating Assad and Trump as leaders, and a signal of support for U.S. cruise missile strikes against the Assad regime, its supposed creator said Friday.

'Donald Trump is honestly quite the horrible human being. But he did something right,' said Twitter user Obada.

Asked if his intent in juxtaposing Trump's face with Assad's slogan was satirical, Obada replied 'Yes, absolutely.'

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Twitter user Obada says he put the Assad slogan on Trump's face after US strikes on a Syrian airbase. Trump is 'quite the horrible human being. But he did something right,' Obada said

Posters like this one, bearing the image of Syria's president Bashar Assad with the slogan 'We love you' in Arabic, are ubiquitous in Damascus. A new trend mocks the propaganda

Obada explained the image was 'absolutely' satirical in this Friday tweet

Obada claims to be an 18-year-old Syrian who is opposed to both Assad and ISIS, as well as the YPG, a Kurdish militia in Syria.

Trump ordered the Thursday airstrike on the Assad regime's al-Shayrat air base in retaliation for the facility's role in a recent nerve gas attack on civilians.

Syrians, caught in a years-long, multi-party civil war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, seemed to signal wariness at the first direct U.S. airstrikes against Assad with the cheeky Twitter avatars.

Other Syrian Twitter users quickly adopted the image, prompting some Western news outlets to misinterpret the satire as an outpouring of support for the US president

Other anti-Assad Syrians of various stripes also changed their Twitter profiles to the Trump-Assad mashup on Friday but other users were quick to point out that they did not believe the expression of love for Trump was genuine.

'This attack was clearly an attempt to win over hearts and minds,' Syrian Twitter user Mostafa Mahamed said in response to the Trump-Assad meme.

'Only the naive will be fooled to believe that Trump has a heart.'