US President Donald Trump has launched air strikes on Syria, claiming they are in the "vital national security interests" of the United States.
The President's surprise move came just 48 hours after Syrian government forces launched a chemical weapons attack against civilians in the north of the country.
Our US Correspondent Simon Marks reports.
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This is a stunning development…President Trump interrupting his Florida summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to announce he'd launched a targeted military strike against the airfield in Syria from where the US says the chemical attack was launched.
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It is unclear whether Russia was given any advance warning of the American decision to strike.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says they weren't.
The Pentagon says they were.
The confusion redolent of a decision making process that moved at lightning speed after President Trump, earlier in the day, told reporters on Air Force One that Bashar al Assad must be held to account for the slaughter of innocents.
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He's there, he said of President Bashar al Assad….he's running things, so Mr. Trump said, something should happen.
That "something" was later fleshed out by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
He says the Syrian attack led to new thinking within the Trump administration just days after officials suggested the Assad government was part of Syria's "political reality".
Now the Trump team believes Assad must go.
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But there is no indication that the military strike authorized by President Trump is the beginning of a longer-term US military commitment in Syria.
Rather it seems to have been intended to send messages: to Bashar al Assad that the use of nerve agents has consequences…..to the President's critics, that he's willing to take actions that infuriate the Russians…..to dissident Republicans, now applauding the President's decision to launch the attack.
And also to Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Mar a Lago resort….who knows President Trump has also vowed, if necessary, to take unilateral action in his back yard against North Korea.