MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. The downing of the majority of the US-led coalition’s missiles by Syria’s air defense is an excellent result, said former chief of the air and missile defense troops of the Russian Air Force Alexander Gorkov in an interview to the Rossiya 1 TV channel.

"This date should be written down in gold in the history of Syria’s air defense troops," the expert stressed.

The equipment produced in the USSR in the 1960s "has shown high efficiency", although "it was created for completely different purposes," Gorkov noted. "America’s ‘smart bombs’ came up against 1960s intellect," he added. 

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the missile strike against Syria’s military and civilian infrastructures was carried out by US warplanes and naval ships in cooperation with British and French air forces between 03:42 and 05:10 Moscow time on Saturday. The Syrian air defenses shot down 71 out of 103 missiles fired by the United States and its allies.

Earlier, the US, the UK and France said the strikes were in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, a suburb of the Syrian capital.