Former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonBarr criticizes DOJ in speech declaring all agency power 'is invested in the attorney general' Virginia Democrat blasts Trump's 'appalling' remark about COVID-19 deaths in 'blue states' The Hill's Campaign Report: Biden asks if public can trust vaccine from Trump ahead of Election Day | Oklahoma health officials raised red flags before Trump rally MORE on Thursday said that the U.S. should target Syrian military airfields in retaliation for an apparent chemical attack by Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces in northern Syria.

"That air force is the cause of most of the civilian deaths, as we have seen over the years and as we saw again in the last few days," Clinton said at the Women of the World Summit in New York.

"I really believe that we should have — and still should — take out his airfields and prevent him from being able to use them to bomb innocent people and drop sarin gas on them."

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Clinton is weighing in as the U.S. military decides how to respond to this week's chemical strike in Syria's Idlib Province that killed more than 70 civilians, including children. Aid workers and eyewitnesses on the ground there claim that the Syrian government is responsible for the attack.

But any attack on the Syrian government could be complicated by the presence of Russian military forces, which are supporting Assad's government. The Russian military is reportedly providing air defenses for Assad, meaning that any air strike in Syria could run into Russian opposition.

Turkey's Health Ministry on Thursday said that autopsies of some of the victims revealed that they were exposed to sarin, a deadly nerve agent that is banned by the United Nations. The Assad regime has repeatedly denied responsibility for the attack.

President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday that there would likely be retaliation for the strikes, though they refused to say what role the U.S. would play in that response.