Iran has strongly condemned the Israeli regime's attack on an air base in the Syrian province of Homs, saying it was a blatant violation of international law which would strengthen terrorists.and runs counter to all international regulations and principles," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Monday.Russia and Syria said on Monday that Israeli warplanes struck an air base in Homs and that Syrian air defense systems shot down five of eight missiles fired.The Interfax news agency cited the Russian Defense Ministry as saying that two Israeli F-15 warplanes carried out strikes from Lebanese air space on the T-4 air base on Sunday.The Syrian state media also reported that the deadly attack was carried out by Israeli warplanes."The Israeli attack on the T-4 airport was carried out with F-15 aircraft that fired several missiles from above Lebanese territory," a Syrian military source said.</s>Just moments ago The Duran posed the question: Israel or France, who attacked Syrian airfields, after false flag chemical attack?

We just got our answer…

Two Israeli F-15 fighters targeted Syria’s T-4 airbase in Homs province, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday. The jets fired eight guided missiles, but five of them were shot down before they hit the airfield. In a statement on Monday, the Russian military said: “Two Israeli Air Force F-15 jets fired eight guided missiles at the T-4 airfield.” The Israeli aircraft did not enter Syrian airspace and launched the strikes while flying over Lebanon. “Syrian air defense units have shot down five guided missiles,” the military said, but confirmed that three of the missiles “reached the western part of the airfield.” Citing its own correspondent, Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen channel said earlier on Monday that an Israeli reconnaissance aircraft was airborne during the attack on the Syrian base. The missiles crossed Lebanese airspace over Keserwan and Bekaa, heading towards Syria, according to the broadcaster.

The IDF telegraphed its intentions to strike Syria way back in February with this tweet suggesting that Israel has had its eye on T4 for some time, all it needed was another scripted Deep State/Al Qaeda sponsored chemical weapons false flag to legitimize its actions…

Buy us a coffee ☕ Every Dollar, Pound and Euro you send us helps our publication stay active, reach more people and to continue to shed light on the social-political issues of our time. Will you help expose the lies of the mainstream media? As a reader of The Duran, you are well aware of all the propaganda and disinformation reported by the mainstream media. You know how important it is to bring real news to light. Please support The Duran and help us keep reporting on news that is fair, balanced, and real.</s>AMMAN (Reuters) - Syria and its main ally Russia blamed Israel for carrying out an attack on a Syrian air base near Homs on Monday which followed reports of a poison gas attack by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces on a rebel-held town.

Israel, which has struck Syrian army locations many times in the course of its neighbour’s seven-year-old civil war, has not confirmed nor denied mounting the raid.

But Israeli officials said the Tiyas, or T-4, air base was being used by troops from Iran and that Israel would not accept such a presence in Syria by its arch foe.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor, said at least 14 people were killed including some fighters of various nationalities, a reference to Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia members, mostly from Iraq, Lebanon and Iran fighting alongside the Syrian army.

The attack demonstrated the multi-faceted nature of the Syria conflict, which started in March 2011 as an uprising against Assad and now involves several countries and various insurgent groups in a web of alliances.

It took place hours after U.S. President Donald Trump warned of a “big price to pay” following the reports of a poison gas attack on the rebel-held town of Douma which killed dozens of people, including children.

Trump referred in a Tweet to “Animal Assad” and criticised Russia and Iran for backing the Syrian leader, directly naming Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Damascus denied its forces had launched any chemical assault and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said such allegations were false and a provocation. Lavrov also said the strike on the T-4 base was a dangerous development.

Syrian state TV initially said the United States was suspected of carrying out the attack on T-4. Washington denied this, and France, which in February had said it would strike in the event of a chemical weapon attack on civilians by Syrian government forces, also said its forces were not involved.

The Russian military, whose support for Assad has turned the war in his favour, said two Israeli F-15 war planes carried out the strike. Interfax news agency cited the Russian Defence Ministry as saying Syrian air defence systems had shot down five of eight missiles fired.

Syrian state media, citing a military source, carried a similar report. “The Israeli aggression on the T4 airport was carried out with F-15 planes that fired several missiles from above Lebanese land,” state news agency SANA said.

The Israeli government had no immediate comment.

Israel has accused Damascus of allowing Iran to set up a complex at the T-4 base to supply arms to its ally, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and in the past its forces have hit convoys and bases of Iranian-backed militias that fight alongside Assad’s troops.

Defence analysts say a number of Russian troops are also based there and jets fly regular sorties from T-4.

Israeli opposition lawmaker Yair Lapid told Army Radio: “Israel will not accept an Iranian military presence in Syria and will not accept Iran’s creeping entrenchment in Syria and this has costs.”

Housing Minister Yoav Galant, while also not confirming that Israel had carried out the attack, said: “We have clear interests in Syria. We laid down red lines there, which said that we would not allow Syrian land to be a springboard for game-changing weaponry to Lebanon, we would not allow the building of an Iranian army in Syria and we would not allow the opening of another front on the Golan Heights.

“In this context we are taking action with all means, over time.”

As international officials worked to try to confirm Saturday’s chemical attack on Douma, a Syria medical relief group said at least 60 people had been killed there and more than 1,000 injured in several sites.

The toll is likely to rise, said the Union of Medical Care Organizations (UOSSM), a group of international aid agencies.

“The numbers keep rising as relief workers struggle to gain access to the subterranean areas where gas has entered and hundreds of families had sought refuge,” the group said.

The Syrian American Medical Society and the civil defence service, which operates in rebel-held areas, said 49 people had been killed in the suspected gas attack.

The Syrian opposition blamed the suspected chemical attack on government forces, who launched an air and ground assault on Douma, the last rebel-held town in the eastern Ghouta district, on Friday.

One video shared by activists showed bodies of about a dozen children, women and men, some with foam at the mouth.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

The United States launched a missile strike on a Syrian air base a year ago in response to the killing of dozens of civilians in a sarin gas attack in an opposition-held town in northwest Syria. The gas attack was blamed on Assad.

U.S. government sources said Washington’s assessment of Saturday’s attack was that chemical weapons were used. The European Union also said evidence pointed to the use of chemical weapons by Assad’s forces.

The U.N. Security Council will meet twice on Monday following rival requests by Russia and the United States.

U.N. war crimes investigators had previously documented 33 chemical attacks in Syria, attributing 27 to the Assad government, which has repeatedly denied using the weapons.

UOSSM said doctors could not determine the origin of the chemical attacks. Dr. Muhammad, a doctor in Ghouta, said patients were coughing blood, a symptom not seen in previous chemical attacks.

Professor Rapharl Pitti of UOSSM France said that after viewing videos from the site, the patients seem to present convulsions more typical of sarin.

“Everything suggests that during the second attack, chlorine was used to conceal the use of sarin at the same time ,” he said.

The attack appears to have brought Assad closer to sealing victory in the military campaign for eastern Ghouta launched by the Russian-backed Syrian army in February.

Following the attack, the rebel group Jaish al-Islam gave way to a Syrian government demand that it accept safe passage out to rebel-held areas at the Turkish border.

It marks Assad’s most significant victory over the rebellion against his rule since 2016, and underlines his unassailable position in the conflict.</s>Russian Defense Ministry says Israel was behind airstrike in Syria, fired 8 missiles at a Syrian government air base

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian Defense Ministry says Israel was behind airstrike in Syria, fired 8 missiles at a Syrian government air base.</s>BEIRUT -- Missiles struck an air base in central Syria early Monday, but the Pentagon quickly denied claims from Syrian state media that the strikes were "an American aggression." A war monitoring group said Iranian-backed militia members were killed in the strikes, and Russia and then Syria accused Israeli jets of firing the missiles.

Syria's state-run SANA news agency said the missile attack on the T4 military air base in Homs province had resulted in a number of casualties. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said 14 people were killed, including foreign nationals -- an allusion to Iranian, or at least Iran-backed, fighters.

Russia's allegation that two Israeli F-15s had fired a total of eight missiles at the T4 base came several hours after Pentagon spokesman Christopher Sherwood said in a statement that the "Department of Defense is not conducting air strikes in Syria."

The missile attack followed a suspected poison gas attack Saturday on the last remaining foothold for the Syrian opposition in the eastern suburbs of Damascus. At least 40 people were killed, including families found in their homes and shelters, opposition activists and local rescuers said.

As CBS News correspondent Holly Williams reports, videos from Douma show lifeless bodies with no visible injuries, all of them apparently inside buildings, survivors struggling to breathe, many of them children. Victims are seen being washed down, apparently to remove a substance from their skin.

President Trump has promised a "big price to pay" for the suspected chemical attack and called Syrian President Bashar Assad an "animal" in tweets sent earlier Sunday:

CBS News can not independently verify the reports of a chemical attack in Syria, and the Syrian government denied the allegations, calling them fabrications.

Survivors, though, reportedly smelled of chlorine -- a chemical that can be deadly in confined spaces.

Dr. Ahmad Tarakji, of the Syrian American Medical Society, told CBS News via Skype that at his field hospital in eastern Ghouta, they "received many patients who suffered from symptoms compatible with exposure to chlorine gas -- high concentration chlorine gas."

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the accusations against Bashar Assad's regime a "provocation" and, referring to the airstrikes on the base in Homs, he added that the situation in Syria was, "becoming too dangerous" as "actors whom nobody invited" show up on the complex battlefield.

Israel's government did not confirm that it had carried out any strikes in Syria, but it has targeted Assad's forces, and their Iranian allies, inside the country before. Some Israeli media noted

Russia's Ministry of Defense said Monday that "two F-15 aircraft of the Israeli Air Force, without entering Syrian airspace, struck eight controlled missiles at the airfield." It said the missiles were fired from within Lebanese airspace, and that five of them were destroyed by Syria's air defenses before landing.

Three missiles "reached the western part of the airfield," according to the Russian military, which also has personnel in the area in support of Assad's forces. No Russian "advisers" were hit in the early morning missile strike, according to Russia.

In the statement released early Monday morning, U.S. military spokesman Sherwood said the Pentagon would "continue to closely watch the situation and support the ongoing diplomatic efforts to hold those who use chemical weapons, in Syria and otherwise, accountable."

The U.S. launched several dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base in 2017 after a chemical attack in the northern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun killed dozens of people. Israel has also struck inside Syria in recent years.

The suspected poison gas attack Saturday on the besieged town of Douma came almost exactly a year after the U.S. missile attack prompted by the Khan Sheikhoun deaths.

First responders said they found families suffocated in their homes and shelters, with foam on their mouths. The opposition-linked Syrian Civil Defense were able to document 42 fatalities but were impeded from searching further by strong odors that gave their rescuers difficulties breathing, said Siraj Mahmoud, a spokesman for the group, which is known as the White Helmets.

"Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!" the president wrote.

Mr. Trump later blamed his predecessor President Barack Obama for not taking action against the Assad regime earlier in the civil war.

Hours after the attack, the Army of Islam rebel group agreed to surrender the town and evacuate their fighters to rebel-held northern Syria, Syrian state media reported. The group also agreed to give up its prisoners, a key demand of the government.

The government agreed to halt its assault after three days of indiscriminate air and ground attacks.

"There's nothing left for civilians and fighters. We don't have anything to stand fast," said Haitham Bakkar, an opposition activist inside the town. He spoke to the Associated Press via WhatsApp.

"People now are going out in the streets looking for their loved ones in the rubble," Bakkar said. "And we don't have any space left to bury them."

More than 100 buses entered the town Sunday night to transport fighters and their families to Jarablus, a town under the shared control of rebels and Turkey, said Syrian state-affiliated al-Ikhbariya TV.

The preparations follow a pattern of evacuations around the capital and other major Syrian cities as the government reasserts its control after seven years of war.

Human rights groups and United Nations officials say the tactic amounts to forced displacement, a war crime. The U.N. Security Council planned to hold an emergency meeting Monday to discuss the attack.

It's unclear what the administration's next steps are with regard to responding to the attack. In response to a similar chemical attack in April of last year, Mr. Trump ordered a missile strike on a Syrian military target in Shayrat, about 50 miles due south of the village that was hit in a gas attack.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday on CBS News' "Face the Nation" that he and the administration "will be reviewing with the president all different alternatives" for a response.</s>April 9 (UPI) -- Russia and Syria blamed the Israeli military Monday for a missile strike on an air base near the Mediterranean coast that killed more than a dozen people.

The base, known as Tiyas, was struck late Sunday by at least 20 Tomahawk cruise missiles. The government-controlled Syrian Arab News Agency said their direction of travel indicated they may have come from Israel. Eight of them were shot down.

SANA also reported the United States was responsible for the airstrike, but Pentagon officials have denied it.

The Russian Defense Ministry said two Israeli F-15 fighter planes fired the missiles from Lebanese airspace, and that five of eight missiles were intercepted.

The Israeli military did not initially confirm or deny information on the strikes.

Israel has remained largely neutral in the Syria conflict -- as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with allies Russia, Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah, have fought rebel factions backed by the United States. Tel Aviv, though, has concerns about Iran establishing military sites inside Syria that could be used to attack Israel.

The Tiyas base is not known to contain chemical weapons, but Israel has accused Syria of allowing Iran to establish a base there to supply Hezbollah with weapons.

"We have clear interests in Syria and we set red lines," Yoav Galant of Israel's security cabinet said after the attack. "We will not allow weapons to be transferred from Syria to Lebanon and we will not allow an Iranian entrenchment."

The airstrike, which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said killed three Syrian commanders, came after reports Saturday of a chemical attack on civilians in the embattled city of Ghouta, a Damascus suburb.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Syria would pay "a big price" for the chemical attack and said Assad should expect a "strong, joint response" with France. Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron are scheduled to meet in Washington on April 23.

A year ago, Trump fired dozens of cruise missiles into the al-Shayrat airfield, near Homs, following a chemical attack that killed and injured hundreds of civilians.</s>UNITED NATIONS/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russia and the United States tangled on Tuesday at the United Nations over the use of chemical weapons in Syria as Washington and its allies considered whether to strike at President Bashar al-Assad’s forces over a suspected poison gas attack last weekend.

Moscow and Washington halted attempts by each other in the U.N. Security Council to set up international investigations into chemical weapons attacks in Syria, which is in the throes of a seven-year-old civil war.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Western allies are discussing possible military action to punish Assad for a suspected poison gas attack on Saturday on a rebel-held town that long had held out against government forces.

Trump on Tuesday canceled a planned trip to Latin America later this week to focus instead on responding to the Syria incident, the White House said. Trump had on Monday warned of a quick, forceful response once responsibility for the Syria attack was established.

Pan-European air traffic control agency Eurocontrol warned airlines to exercise caution in the eastern Mediterranean due to the possible launch of air strikes into Syria in next 72 hours.

On the diplomatic front, the United Nations Security Council failed to approve three draft resolutions on chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Russia vetoed a U.S. text, while two Russian-drafted resolutions failed to get a minimum nine votes to pass.

Moscow opposes any Western strike on its close ally Assad and has vetoed Security Council action on Syria 12 times since the conflict started.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the Security Council that adopting the U.S.-drafted resolution was the least that member nations could do.

“History will record that, on this day, Russia chose protecting a monster over the lives of the Syrian people,” Haley said, referring to Assad.

At least 60 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in Saturday’s suspected chemical weapons attack on the town of Douma, according to a Syrian relief group.

Doctors and witnesses have said victims showed symptoms of poisoning, possibly by a nerve agent, and reported the smell of chlorine gas.

RUSSIA ACCUSES

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Washington’s decision to put forward its resolution could be a prelude to a Western strike on Syria.

“I would once again ask you, once again beseech you, to refrain from the plans that you’re currently developing for Syria,” he said after the council failed to approve a third draft resolution on chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

International chemical weapons experts are expected to go to Douma to investigate the suspected poison gas attack.

France and Britain discussed with the Trump administration how to respond to the Douma attack. Both stressed that the culprit still needed to be confirmed.

The Douma incident has thrust Syria’s conflict back to the forefront of the international stage, pitting Washington and Moscow against each other once again.

Trump said that he would make a decision about how to respond within a few days, adding that the United States had “a lot of options militarily” on Syria.

Assad’s government and Russia have said there was no evidence a gas attack had taken place and that the claim was bogus.

Any U.S. strike is likely to involve naval assets, given the risk to aircraft from Russian and Syrian air defense systems. A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, is in the Mediterranean.

A key issue being considered by U.S. defense and intelligence agencies and war planners is the effectiveness of Syrian air defenses and the extent to which Russia is helping to organize, and ultimately, direct Syrian air defense operations, according to two U.S. government sources.

Last year, the United States launched strikes from two Navy destroyers against a Syrian air base.

U.S. military action similar to last year’s would likely not cause a shift in the direction of the war that has gone Assad’s way since 2015 with massive aid from Iran and Russia.

There was little expectation that members of Congress would object if Trump launched an attack on Syria, despite some calls for lawmakers to exert their power to authorize military action. Most members of Congress – Democrats as well as his fellow Republicans - praised Trump after the strike last year.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that any strikes would not target the Syrian government’s allies or anybody in particular, but would be aimed at the Syrian government’s chemical facilities.

CHEMICAL WEAPONS PROBE

The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Syria had been asked to make the necessary arrangements for the deployment of an investigation team.

“The team is preparing to deploy to Syria shortly,” it said in a statement.

The mission will aim to determine whether banned munitions were used but will not assign blame.

The Assad government and Russia both urged the OPCW to investigate the allegations of chemical weapons use in Douma, a move by the two countries that was apparently aimed at averting any U.S.-led action.

“Syria is keen on cooperating with the OPCW to uncover the truth behind the allegations that some Western sides have been advertising to justify their aggressive intentions,” Syria’s state news agency SANA said.

A European source said European governments were waiting for the OPCW to carry out its investigation and for more solid forensic evidence from the attack to emerge. Any plan by Washington and its allies to take military action was likely to be on hold until then, the source said.

In Syria, thousands of militants and their families arrived in rebel-held parts of the country’s northwest after surrendering Douma to government forces.

Their evacuation restored Assad’s control over eastern Ghouta, formerly the biggest rebel bastion near Damascus, and gave him his biggest battlefield victory since 2016, when he took back Aleppo.

Aggravating the volatile situation in the region, Iran - Assad’s other main ally - threatened to respond to an air strike on a Syrian military base on Monday that Tehran, Damascus and Moscow have blamed on Israel.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, meanwhile, said there was no threat of the situation in Syria resulting in a military clash between Russia and the United States. TASS news agency quoted him as saying he believed common sense would prevail.

A man is washed following alleged chemical weapons attack, in what is said to be Douma, Syria in this still image from video obtained by Reuters on April 8, 2018. White Helmets/Reuters TV via REUTERS

A Russian warplane flew over a French warship at low altitude in the eastern Mediterranean this weekend, a deliberate breach of international regulations, a French naval source said on Tuesday.

The weekly magazine Le Point said the Russian plane had flown over the frigate Aquitaine and was fully armed. The Aquitaine is equipped with 16 cruise missiles and 16 surface-to-air missiles. It is currently operating off Lebanon alongside U.S. ships as part of France’s military contingent fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

Despite the international revulsion over chemical weapons attacks, the death toll from such incidents in Syria is only a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of combatants and civilians killed since the war began in 2011.</s>The Latest: Russia says Israel was behind Syria airstrike

BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the situation on Syria (all times local):

The Russian military says the Israeli Air Force was behind the airstrike in Syria and had launched eight missiles on a Syrian air base.

A Syrian military official also says Israel was behind the attack.

Russia's Defense Ministry says two Israeli fighter jets launched the attack on the T4 air base in central Syria from Lebanon's air space in the early hours on Monday.

The ministry says Syria shot down five out of the eight missiles that targeted the base. It says the other three landed in the western part of the T4 base.

Syrian state TV meanwhile quoted the unnamed military official as saying Israeli F-15 warplanes had fired several missiles while flying over neighboring Lebanon. The TV gave no further details.

Syrian state media are saying that dozens of civilians who had been held for years by a rebel group near the capital of Damascus have been set free.

The state SANA news agency says the people were freed around midnight on Sunday. It says they had been held by the Army of Islam group since 2013.

Their release is part of a newly reached deal in which thousands of Army of Islam fighters and their relative will be allowed to leave the town of Douma and head to rebel-held part in northern Syria.

SANA released pictures of men, women and children waving from buses shortly after they crossed into government-controlled areas on the edge of Douma.

The Army of Islam is holding thousands of people in the Tawba prison that they run inside Douma.

A Syrian war-monitoring group says 14 people, including Iranians, were killed in a missile attack early in the morning on an air base in central Syria.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says most of the 14 killed were either Iranians or members of Iran-backed groups.

Syria's state-run news agency earlier reported that missiles struck the T4 air base early on Monday. It said the attack left people dead and wounded. Although the agency said it was likely "an American aggression," U.S. officials said the United States had not launched any airstrikes on Syria.

Al-Manar TV station of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group, which is fighting in Syria alongside the government forces, described the attack as an "Israeli aggression."

The Observatory says it wasn't immediately clear who was behind the attack.

Syria's state news agency says missiles have struck an air base in central Syria in the early hours of the day.

The agency said it was likely "an American aggression" but U.S. officials say the United States had not launched airstrikes on Syria.

Monday's missile attack followed a suspected poison gas attack on Saturday on the last remaining foothold for the Syrian opposition in the eastern suburbs of Damascus. At least 40 people were killed, including families found in their homes and shelters, according to opposition activists and local rescuers.

SANA reported that the missile attack on the T4 military air base in Homs province resulted in a number of casualties.

The U.N. Security Council planned to hold an emergency meeting Monday to discuss the chemical attack.</s>Following Sundays chemical weapon attack in Douma that was blamed on the Syrian government, Israel launched missiles at a Syrian airbase according to the Russian MoD.



The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that two Israeli F-15 fighters targeted Syria’s T-4 airbase in the Homs province.

The jets fired eight guided missiles, but five of them were shot down before they hit the airfield.

The missiles crossed Lebanese air space to reach their intended target. Activists ssay that at least 14 people were killed in the strike, including Iranians.

RT reports: In a statement on Monday, the Russian military said: “Two Israeli Air Force F-15 jets fired eight guided missiles at the T-4 airfield.” The Israeli aircraft did not enter Syrian airspace and launched the strikes while flying over Lebanon.

Syrian air defense units have shot down five guided missiles,” the military said, but confirmed that three of the missiles “reached the western part of the airfield.”

The Israeli embassy in Moscow refused to comment on the Russian Defense Ministry’s report, Alex Gandler, the diplomatic mission’s press attache, told Sputnik. Asked about the Russian military’s statement, an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman said he had no immediate comment, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Citing its own correspondent, Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen channel said earlier on Monday that an Israeli reconnaissance aircraft was airborne during the attack on the Syrian base. The missiles crossed Lebanese airspace over Keserwan and Bekaa, heading towards Syria, according to the broadcaster.

The missile attack took place on Sunday night in Syria’s Homs governorate. State news agency SANA reported there were several “martyrs and wounded,” but did not disclose the exact number of casualties. The report also said that the US was “probably” behind the attack, although Washington denied any complicity in the strike.

“At this time, the Department of Defense is not conducting airstrikes in Syria,” the Pentagon told Reuters in a statement. “However, we continue to closely watch the situation and support the ongoing diplomatic efforts to hold those who use chemical weapons, in Syria and otherwise, accountable.”

France, which was also suspected of being involved in the attack, denied any responsibility for the military strike, AFP reported on Monday.

The strike on the T-4 base came shortly after Western powers accused the Syrian government of orchestrating an alleged a chlorine attack in the militant-held town of Douma. The chemical incident was reported by the White Helmets, a controversial group repeatedly accused of having ties to terrorists.

Commenting on the unconfirmed gas attack, US President Donald Trump denounced the “mindless” atrocity, which he described as a “humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever.” He also accused Russia and Iran of bearing responsibility for the incident, due to their support for Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Washington and Paris have already held telephone talks, during which Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron decided to oppose Russia at the upcoming United Nations Security Council meeting, which is being convened to discuss the Douma incident. President Macron previously signaled that Paris might consider unilateral actions, including a military strike, if chemical weapons were ever used in Syria again.

The Russian Foreign Ministry denounced allegations regarding the chemical attack, calling them a “continuous series of fake news” and “baseless speculation.” It noted that Moscow had already warned about a false-flag chemical attack being prepared in recent months. Damascus also rejected the accusations, with the Syrian Foreign Ministry pointing out that similar allegations emerge every time the Syrian Army makes advances in its fight against terrorists.</s>Syrian air defences shot down eight missiles after a major air base in central Syria was struck in the early hours of Monday, Syrian state television reported. The state broadcaster said explosions were heard at the T-4 airfield near Homs, which is close to the ancient city of Palmyra in central Syria. It said there were several dead and wounded. Syrian state media said they were suspected to be U.S. strikes but U.S. officials said that the U.S. military had not launched air strikes.

U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier on Sunday there would be a “big price to pay” after medical aid groups reported dozens of people were killed by poison gas in a besieged rebel-held town in Syria. The Syrian state denied government forces had launched any chemical attack. Russia, President Bashar al-Assad’s most powerful ally, called the reports fake.
Eight missiles are launched at the Syrian T4 air base in Homs Governorate, reportedly by Israeli F-15s. Syria claimed that five of the missiles are intercepted by the Syrian Air Defense Force. Reports stated that 14 soldiers were killed in the strike, including 4 Iranian Revolution Guards.