NEW YORK, April 7. /TASS/. The US military fired at least 50 cruise missiles at a military base of the Syrian government forces near the Homs province in western Syria, the NBC TV channel reported citing US military officials.
The missile strike comes in response to what Washington believes was the Syrian government’s use of banned chemical weapons in the province of Idlib, the report says.
The Tomahawk cruise missiles were intended for a single target - Ash Sha'irat, home to an airfield from which the US intelligence believes the alleged chemical attack had been carried out.
The Fox News TV channel earlier reported that the US has two Navy warships in the eastern Mediterranean - the USS Ross and USS Porter - equipped with Aegis missile defense system and Tomagawk.
On April 4, Reuters cited the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying that an airstrike on Syrian’s town of Khan Shaykhun, in the Idlib province, had killed 58 people, including 11 children. Reuters alleged that the chemical attack could have been carried out by "Syrian government or Russian jets."
The World Health Organization said in a statement that "at least 70 people have died and hundreds more have been affected."
The Russian and Syrian militaries denied their involvement in the attack. Russia’s Defense Ministry later said that on April 4, the Syrian air force had delivered an airstrike on the eastern outskirts of Khan Shaykhun to destroy militant facilities used to produce chemical bombs. These bombs were sent to Iraq and were previously used in Aleppo.