Us airstrikes in syria
US bombs Syrian army position near Tanf: pro-Assad commander
Tanf is part of a region known as the Badia, which consists of vast, sparsely populated desert territory that stretches to the Jordanian and Iraqi borders.
The scale of Israeli fire was far higher than in previous incidents and Damascus residents described seeing a series of explosions above the city from air defense systems.
President Bashar al-Assad’s government has vowed to retake all of Syria from rebels who have lost large swaths of the territory they have held in a war now entering its eighth year.
During Syria’s more than six-year-old conflict, Israel has returned fire across the border, including stray shells from fighting among Syrian combatants.
Moscow warned Washington it would treat any US-led coalition planes in its area of operations as potential targets after the US air force downed a Syrian jet.
A war monitor said air strikes, thought to be by planes from a US-led military coalition, killed at least 23 people in two parts of Deir al-Zor.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, meanwhile, blamed Russian inaction for helping fuel the chemical weapons attack it had reacted to.
A White House official said any difference in nuance was inadvertent and unintentional, and declined to comment further.
North Korea is believed to be developing missiles capable of hitting the United States and a nuclear arsenal in defiance of UN sanctions.
The two agreed that the United States, Japan and South Korea will remain in close contact on North Korea.
Mattis and McMaster argued that choosing that target would draw the clearest line between Assad’s use of nerve gas and the retaliatory strike.
Clinton also called Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election a theft more damaging than Watergate.
US officials said the military launched dozens of cruise missile strikes against an airbase controlled by Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
The strike took place just a day after more than 80 Islamic State militants were killed in US air strikes in Libya.
The commander Abu Hajer al Homsi, whose alias is Abu Omar Saraqeb, was killed in a rural area of Aleppo.
Ali Daqneesh was wounded in Wednesday’s air strike, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The death toll at the camp near the town of Sarmada is expected to rise.
A coalition air strike on 24 December in Syria killed Charaffe al Mouadan, a Syria-based Islamic State member.
Tornado bombers took off from the RAF Akrotiri air base in Cyprus and made strikes on targets in Syria.