Russia claims
Syrian air defences had intercepted 71 of 103 cruise missiles fired by coalition forces during overnight strikes in Syria. However, Defence Secretary
Gavin Williams fired back this morning called the strike “successful”.
Britain joined the US and
France in the early hours of today in a massive assault on chemical weapons production and storage facilities near Damascus and
Homs in retaliation for an attack on Syrian civilians using chlorine gas last weekend.
Syrian TV has described the attack by the US and its allies as a “flagrant violation” of international law.
Durig a pres conference this morning Russia's Col Gen Sergei Rudskoi said Syrian military facilities had suffered only minor damage and claimed claimed that the Syrian air defences took out the 71 missiles.
He also claimed three civilians had been wounded on the attack on a military base in Homs.
The attack, hit three targets, including a scientific research centre in the greater Damascus area used for research, development, production and testing of chemical weapons and a site near Homs thought to be a sarin gas production centre.
Moscow said Syria used S-125, S-200, Buk and Kvadrat systems to repel the attack.
Up to 120 airstrikes were carried out, but the Pentagon was unable to confirm how many missiles hit their target.
Despite the claims from Syria and Russia Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that last night's air strike against the Syrian regime was "a highly successful mission".
He said: "The reason we have taken this action is because we all saw the images last week of the suffering that had been inflicted on innocent men, women and children, and there has been a need to act.
"That's why last night we deployed four Tornados armed with Storm Shadow cruise missiles. You will be pleased to hear all of those crews have returned safely and every early indication is that is has been a highly successful mission.
"This is something we have been in discussion with the US and French over the last few days but obviously the meeting of Cabinet is where this was properly discussed."
A US top general also played down any retaliation to the overnight strikes.
Marine General Dunford said: "We did have some initial surface-to-air missile activity from the Syrian regime. That's the only retaliatory action we're aware of at this time.
"We've completed the targets that were assigned to the
United States central command. Those operations are complete."
"We specifically identified these targets to mitigate the risk of Russian forces being involved. We did not do any co-ordination with the Russians on the strikes, nor did we pre-notify them."
Experts were also quick to point out the bold claims were likely to be Russian propaganda
Last night an official from the Assad regime has since boasted the strikes will have had little effect.
They told Reuters: “We have absorbed the strike.
“We had an early warning of the strike from the Russians and all military bases were evacuated a few days ago.”
The advanced warning means around a third of the 30 missiles fired were shot down, according to the official.
They added: “We are carrying out an assessment of the material damages.”
British Storm Shadow cruise missiles known as "bunker busters" were used in the strikes. These sophisticated weapons weigh more than a ton, measure more than five metres and can penetrate targets underground.
Joining them were four RAF Tornado GR4s launching the Storm Shadow missiles.
According to CNN, at least one US Navy warship based in the Red Sea took part in the strikes. US B-1 bombers were also deployed.
Moscow had boasted of its S-400 surface-to-air defence system, but it does not appear to have been used in the strikes.
The surface-to-air missile battery has been described as one of the most formidable air defence systems in the world
It has a 248 mile range and is capable of shooting down 80 targets simultaneously.
It was installed in Syria in 2015, also has a speed of 10,000mph and can shoot down fighter jets and missiles.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis acknowledged that the United States waged the attacks only with conclusive evidence that chlorine gas was used in the April 7 attack in Syria.
Last year, the United States only waged strikes on Syria after determining that more deadly sarin gas was used and some U.S. media had reported that Washington was confident Assad had also used sarin on April 7.
Mattis, however, suggested the evidence of sarin was so far inconclusive.
He said: “We are very confident that chlorine was used. We are not ruling out sarin right now.”
The US President warned Russia "missiles are coming" and the Kremlin responded by vowing to blow up US ships.
An astonishingly volatile tweet from Trump about proposed US intervention in Syria said: "Get ready Russia, because they [missiles] will be coming, nice and new and “smart!”.
Russia had issued a warning on Tuesday saying that any US missiles fired at Syria over the assault on a rebel enclave would be shot down and the launch sites targeted.
And the Syrian government weighed in saying the reports of an alleged chemical attack on civilians in the Syrian town of
Douma are false.