Striple strike. In syria. The stated goal, the mission tonight, was to degrade syrias ability to deploy chemical weapons again. The president in effect made the announcement. 9 00, early indications something could be afoot. And then we have heard, within the last two hours. From briefers at the pentagon, they were the chairman of the joint chiefs, and, and the secretary of defense. Our own courtney, Nbc News National Security and military reporter, is still on duty there. With what its known about tonights strike. Courtney, tell the story from the top, as we know it. You are right, brian. The strikes were from u. S. Standoff weapons. There were both manned aircraft and missiles fired from u. S. Navy ships in the mediterranean. This was an attack on the infrastructure. There were three targets. One was a chemical weapons Storage Facility. One was a research and development and production facility. Sear yum regime. Military. And then command and control. Syrian military as well. We dont know a whole lot about specifics of how many weapons were were fired or anything. But secretary mattis gave us a hint when he said there were twice as many weapons expended as, as the april 2017 attack. Of course that one included 59 tomahawk missiles fired from the med. So we can assume some where in the neighborhood of 120 or so. We dont know what the british and French Military component was. But we are tstarting to hear mo from the capitals. There were two military attaches there briefing tonight. President trump talked about a sustained campaign. Mattis and dunford said a wave of air strikes now concluded. Secretary mattis said, what does this mean sustained. We have not yet seen. May be part of the sustained campaign. That will hopefully unfold in the coming days, brian. All right, court knee. By the way while you were locked in the pentagon briefing room, prior to the briefing we did hear from the brits. That they used tornados, tornado aircraft and, and fired missiles of their own presumably from ships they had moved into the area. Courtney talked about difference in the president s remarks and defense secretary mattis. Tonight the first part of a more sustained campaign. So we want to show you at least a portion of President Trumps remarks, tonight, to a national audience, at, 1 30 after the 9 00 p. M. Hour eastern time. When he appeared to announce this military operation. Establishing this deterrent is a vital National Security interest of the United States. The combined, american, british, french response to these atrocities will in the great all instruments of our national power. Military, economic, and diplomatic. We are prepared to sustain this response until the Syrian Regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents. Again, just a portion of the president s remarks. Covering the white house tonight, for us, Kristen Welker. Been there all through the shift. When you and i talked earlier, this is just kind of, vaguely interesting background color, especially since military operations beyond what the president has said on twitter, should not be foreshadowed because of whove is listening and, and, the risk to american lives. But there was certainly an effort at the white house to say tonight, were leaving for dinner. Nothing to see here. There is going to be no more news. Because, in situations like this, that any what they have to do. Thats what they have to say. Thats right. One white house official indicating look it was a matter of the security of the military officials who would be carrying out these attacks, brian. You are absolutely right. Typically when the president is going to make a big announcement, there is some active team here at the white house. That wasnt really the case tonight. A number of Top Communications officials indicated they were going home. They were leaving offices. Went dark. And then of course that announcement that we learned about just a few moments before it was going to happen. Sort of underscoring the significance of this announcement. Brian, the fact that i spoke to one white house official. I said why now . Mattis said twice the number of weapons this year. As oppose to last year. This official said, look the president thought that syria crossed a red line last year. They clearly did not get the message. Significant for the president to launch an attack that sent a message to dissuade assad from doing this again. That is another reason why it was important for this administration to get the support of allies. The britains, the french, uk and french i should say. Coordinating with them throughout the week. It is also important to note, though, brian there has been ape rope bust robust debate how forceful the strike would be. President trump was pressing for an aggressive response. And defense secretary, james mattis was concerned it could embroil the u. S. In a broader engagement, with, with iran. With russia. Worth noting the president had very firm words tonight for iran and for russia. Some of the strongest word that we have heard him, make toward russia. And of course it comes against the backdrop of the evolving russia probe. That was significant as well. Russia of course, warned earlier this week that they would shoot u. S. Missiles out of the air. By all accounts that has not happened. And the president was, was very clear. He would be undeterred in that. Back to what you and courtney were talking about. This notion of a sustained attack. Of course, defense secretary mattis countering that in the remarks saying this was a one time shot. I think that theyre clearly going to continue to assess the situation. But, what will cross the threshold of another attack . That remains to be seen. Brian here. Under discussion, clearly. Kristen, you mentioned this. Saying all evening long. I think it is fair to report this with more than the usual scrutiny. Because, as most of our viewers coming to this story, are probably saying to themselves, this was not a normal day. This was a day where we saw the president of the United States yelling on social media, and all capital letters, saw him engage in personal attack. Went after mccabe, comey. It was personal. The language was rough. The knot tightened around the president when looked at through the lens of the Southern District of new york investigation that is now at ape place where his personal attorney and long time friend, Michael Cohen, is in what appears to be, big time legal trouble. There is that backdrop at the place you cover for a living. No doubt this was yet another remarkable day and week here at the Trump Administration. And, and today, you almost couldnt keep up with the headlines. Frankly. You ticked through a number of them. To the last point that you make. The fact that there was this raid of his personal attorney, who we saw of course, sitting outside the very offices that were raided earlier this week. This remarkable scene unfolding. And we learned that it is in fact a criminal investigation. Based on court documents. And based on my conversations with officials who are close to the president. That was a real tipping pointing for him. He saw that as crossing a red line. That the special counsel hald gone beyond the scope of what his man date was to investigate russias meddling in the u. S. Election. That prompted a lot of discussion here behind the scenes about not only firing mueller but potentially, firing the Deputy Attorney general, rod roseenstein as well. Fair amount of time trying to drill down on that today. Then of course this explosive book by former fbi director, james comey, President Trump fired. That prompting those tweets that you mentioned. Brian, in all caps. Comey hitting the president personally, but also, calling into question his fitness, for office. Then of course that report that came out today. About former deputy fbi director andrew mccabe. A range of headlines. Some will look at this and say it certainly does divert away from some of the headlines. But the counter to that, the white house would say, is look this is something, this is an option the president took. In concert with key u. S. Al lies. As well. Still, all of that backdrop continues to be something sthalt will get a lot of focus not only from the press corps, but from the rest of the country as we watch that investigation unfold. Yeah. It can be said, as a blanket matter, that everything we see, come from this white house. Comes from a white house facing on a daily basis an existential threat. So we are both saying, ditch rent versions of the same thing. After a long day and particularly long night shift, Kristen Welker on the north lawn of the white house. Our thanks. Thanks, brian. Richard engel. Chief Foreign Correspondent is live in istanbul, turkey, the sun such as it is has risen. Important neighbors, the turks to this military operation. Richard, i understand through your reporting you have a bit more clarity on what transpired to your west earlier today. Awe off well, what we have been trying to figure out and you have been talking about some of it, brian is this apparent discrepancy between the tone that, that President Trump was, was projecting is his statement to the nation. When he said that, that this its a sustained campaign. That the u. S. Will continue to, to, act against the Bashar Al Assad regime until it stops using chemical weapons. When announced on the night of strikes, when announced in a national address, air strikes are under way. That sound very much like a commitment for more military strikes. And that it is, something of of a head snap when a short time later, defense secretary mattis came out, no this was one and done. Perhaps there might be more action. It really depends on, the actions of, of president assad. Just a short time ago, i was freeing to get more clarity on this. Speck spoke to a senior u. S. Military official briefed on this. He told me the strikes are in fact over. That this was intended to be a limited, focused campaign. That there could be more military actions if there are, are, hideous atrocities that take place with chemical weapons in syria. But the president was trying to stress that this is a, not just a military campaign. That it is a military campaign, a diplomatic campaign, a campaign that will use, economic levers as well, to, to pressure the, the assad regime. That, perhaps that its the campaign that he is talking about, when he talks about ape sustained commitment, not just a, an open ended military commitment. But, if it took that amount of clarification for, for reporters to understand, and, and for other viewers. Who listen to the speech to understand exact plea what just happened. I am sure, a lot of americas allies and adversaries are going to be asking themselves the same question. What just happened . Was this some sort of openenned commitment where the u. S. Is going to respond every time there are allegations of chemical weapons . Or was it as this u. S. Official is explaining to me now. A oneoff campaign with an imflied threat of more strikes. And continued, economic, diplomatic pressure. Richard engel. After a long night. Strong coffee poured in istanbul where morning is under way saturday. Appreciate your reporting from there. Morning is but an infant here. We are all of 14 minutes into saturday morning on the east coast. Lets go to Andrea Mitchell who covered this state department for a good long while. And andrea, want to pose a question to you that richard just included in his last answer. Andrea, let me start with you where we boldly went with rick stengel a few moments ago. That is it didnt take long. Boltons first week of work as National Security adviser. Pence went back to his hotel room. Sullivan has been at the embassy all day. Now at the hotel room. At the embassy all day. Making secure calls. Participating in the National Security meeting long distance. Calling members of congress, also, calling Foreign Ministers not able to connect with any according to the state department. We have a new National Security adviser. A defense secretary not necessarily in tune with the National Security adviser. No secretary of state. The nominee to be secretary of state, the cia director, was at a fairly contentious hearing, confirmation hearing yesterday. Tim kane, democrats are saying, that todays, tonights strike was reckless. Because there was no authorization for military force. There is och six to the strike. According to democrat whose want to have hearings on legislation next week, on an authorization for military force. Because this goes beyond they say, the the authorized action against isis against terror that was authorized in 2002. That is the only, military authorization. Really struck by a tweet by the president , shocked the National Security staff, the pentagon and the state department. Because the it was the first, real threat against, to take military action, he has been, fairly bombastic on twitter this week. And stark contrast to 11 days ago threatening to withdraw from syria. An actual threat. Get it up on my phone. Think you have a copy. He said russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at syria. Get ready, russia, because they will be coming, nice and new, and smart. You shouldnt be partners with a gas killing animal who kills his people and enjoys it. That is a threat, that the missiles are about to fly. They werent. He campaigned, campaigned on rereturning the element of surprise. Exactly. He also, previously criticized, the past add strags for taking military action. Some he has in the past been against military action. Then he took it a year ago. It was, really very targeted. Very minor. 58 cruise missiles. They tree built that that, runway within hours. If not days. Yeah. Clearly did not deter numerous chemical attacks. Chlorine attacks werent described as chemical attacks. Chemical weapons attacks, nine in number not responded to. Now we see this response. And, the fact that he said on twitter what he said at 6 57 wednesday morning. Was quite a sur pry. And this is the disconnect. The disconnect in messaging in what you saw. Certainly in tone. And in specifics as Richard Engel pointed out between the pentagon briefing and what the president said in a teleprompter speech. So it was not, something he was saying off the top of his head. But it was clearly cleared by john bolton and nsc, and with little or no advice from the state department. Heard a senior military veteran reacting to the president s tweet, to one word. The fact that we are going to fire new missiles. He said you know we always fire the new ones. The used recycled missiles dont fit in the launch tubes very well. Andrea mitchell, our thanks for staying up with us. Sure thing. As always. Cal perry, global editor at it again. More sid videos from syria, state tv. Social media. On the ground. Happening in leel time earlier tonight. Pick up where you are leaving it off. What just happened. What did the juchlt military do . The president do . That is damascus, live shot from the rooftop of the sheraton hotel. If you are waking of in damascus this morning. You would have been aweak now two hours. You have power. You are watching this. What it says alj the bottom of the screen. Following. Triple aggression by the united kingdom, france, u. S. , has failed. There is no truth, syrian state tv says, to the news that multiple areas were struck. There on the bottom. That one there. The attack was thwarted by our forces by our air defense. And, syrian state tv adding, cycling this around that one of the american missiles flew off target. They say, again, this is obvious propaganda, flew off target. And wounded three civilians. This was one of the dangers from this strike. It is such a fine line, brian, between hitting the targets that are going to cripple, the command and control of the syrian army. Because there could be iranians and russians there. On the other side. If you are playing this game of, of three day hideandseek, where you put out the tweet. And then they start moving everything. You run the risk of not hitting anything. And then allowing the syrian president , al assad, to claim a quick victory saying his forces are powerful enough to thwart at take as theyre saying triple headed monster of the united kingdom, france and the United States. The other piece of video i want to play is a rally. Undoubtedly, sponsored by the Syrian Ministry of the information. Undoubtedly staged in damascus. The mountain there in, in, the background there. So this is in downtown damascus. This was done in the past hour. The same roundabout from the aerial shot. What you are seeing playing out on the ground in damascus. This boisterous celebration as people go out on to the streets. Again because, the infrastructure wasnt targeted, wasnt targeted because of course civilians have been living there through seven years. People have power. People have television. If you are there in central damascus though you haefrd these terrifying and loud explosions, nothing changed this morning. And there is also this, cal, i mean, obviously the people came out. By threat or based on the promise of a complementary syrian flag. Who is, left, who is, who is pro assad . Who are those people . What population are they drawn from . Well, look these are people who have survived the seven year war in damascus and theyre left with one option. That option is, support al assad. The joke in syria is that these events are sponsored by the anyone street of spontaneous events because theyre so planned. Syrian Army Shooting into crowds of funeral processions. And then the celebrations on behalf of the syrian president all while the syrian president had gone underground. Likely he did so again tonight. But what you are seeing here, again, is this window now that is opened. Where president assad, with the backing of the russians can spend the day now, using syrian state controlled tv, to declare victory when he didnt fight a battle overnight. Any video from the ground from social media that appears to show something going wrong, something not going, the way the pentagon told us it did. Nothing yet. And interestingly enough when they go to the four way split on the syrian state tv you can see that the army or the police are blocking off the areas. There you go. The four way. Youve will see, on the left, i can tell you the corners. Upper left hand corner. Aleppo. Look at that prich much in lockdown. So the journalis that are there are not able to get to it. You can be sure there will be strict control over the picture. The next pictures we will see. Again there is a playbook for the propaganda. Next picture we will see will be a shot of a u. S. Rock elt. Probably in multiple pieces. English on the side saying, Something Like u. S. Navy on it. And, the syrians, will banner that. As the, we shot this missile out of the sky. They will likely keep away cam frumtz any of the chemical weapons facilities unless of course it is an empty warehouse in which case we will see the video quickly. All right, cal perry. Thank you so much. We neglect to say when we introduce you and thank you for segments like this, a veteran of the region of the conflicts fought in the region including but not limited to a stint as Baghdad Bureau chief. Cal, thank you for your perspective, time and effort. Another rare commercial break. At least on this night of programming. Coming up for this. We will do that. All of our live coverage continues on the other side. Would need braces because his teeth were coming in funny. This is the picture that was on the front page of the newspaper. All you can notice is the braces then, once he got to michigan state, he broke the retainer my bottom teeth, they were really crooked, and i just wasnt getting braces again. Then i discovered smiledirectclub. Its easy to just grab it and go and i can change it on the road. I did photoshoots with my aligners in and you cant see them. A smile is a first impression, thats why i think having a great smile is so important. Play do it like this. [music plays] when everythings connected, its simple. Easy. Awesome. We used over double the number of weapons this year than we used last year. It was done on targets that we believed were selective to hurt the chemical weapons program. We confined it to the chemical weapons type targets. We were not out to expand this, we were very precise. And proportion that. But at the same time, it was a heavy strike. So to our military analysts, watching that, that was in the 10 00 p. M. Eastern time hour. Obviously secretary of defense, general mattis. That was welcome news. That states he did it several time, the mission, objective of tonight was to degrade syrias ability to fire off chemical weapons again in the gruesome on going conflict. It is also emerging at the same time, that, that merely doubling, and the easiest thing in the world for any of us to say, is that this was a limited strike. There were american sons, daughters, in the air. Supporting the risk to their lives. This was a limited strike in ways that are emerging. To a lot of our experts. Among them, jeremy bash. Former chief of staff. Harvard educated lawyer, msnbc, National Security analyst. Jeremy, what is the light in which you are viewing the size and scope of tonights strike, what it was, what it wasnt . Brian, great that we worked with our al lies. Great that it was, proportionate. But i am just struck by how narrow the target set was. We selected three targets. It was a one time shot. To use secretary mattislingo from the podium. It was a one day operation. We could have used this opportunity in the parlance of the pentagon to, to not waste the crisis. And really degrade assads military ability to wage war on his own people. Instead what you saw was general dunford, chairman, secretary mmattsis showing restraint. Wondering what was motivating that. What i am thinking about is whether this a questioned ee send sthael whether or not the commanderinchief would be committed and able to discharge his duties to get america into a wider military conflict. After all you have a president who has been distracted this week. Shown he is impulsive. Erratic in his rhetoric. Telegraphed our operations. He has taken a long time to kind of set this up. And yet at the end, the actual operation that activity was very limited. And, at the end of the day, i think they questioned the military leaders questioned whether or not the president will be prepared to do the hard work of pushing the russians aside and taking on the assad regime. Well that is the wider question. Because if you want to go after command and control, as no one needs to remind you, then, you are going to kill some russians. Th you are going to bang up russian equipment. And you are going to be presiding over a much more complicated you break it you buy it strategy. Yeah, i thought what we were going to see this week was something different. I thought what we would see was a clear signal to the russians saying we are going in to degrade assads military capability. Get out. The way. Then what we would be doing is hitting assads command and couldnt troll. Military intelligence headquarters. Machine of war if you will. Trying to be careful not to engage unnecessarily the russians. But using the opportunity to really take assad down a notch. Compel him to the negotiating table. Thats not at all what we got to night. We dont have a graphic prepared. Just going to have to put up with me reading a tweet from, david frum, no fan of the president we say at the outset. This is interesting. Suppose you favor a syria intervention, but were told u. S. Aircraft were inoperable or u. S. Warships were unseaworthy. Wouldnt you say postpone until we are ready . He says the planes and ships are fine. But the Political Leadership of the u. S. Is broken. No new wars under this president. And jeremy that is exactly that backdrop that you are talking about. Yeah. I mean, it its not that that jim mattis or joe dumford are doves. They understand the value of, of a Strong Military action. But i have to believe that they were concerned, they were concerned that, that our body politic couldnt sustain a serious military confrontation of assad. And as a result they recommended and got a very narrow and limited military engagement. Now you are normally on this broadcast, and we are fortunate to have you, to talk about, you know whatever developments of the day and the Trump Administration. This brings meet into a corner i can turn by talking abut mr. Comey. The, the meeting i just discussed with the former cia director. Trump tower, january 17, prior to the president elect becoming president. This is where the chiefs of our intelligence structure go brief the new guy and the people he chooses to bring to the meeting. On the world he has inherited. They go into this meeting. And in the comey book, comey talks about how struck he is, after they lay him the extent of the russian influence on the elect eggs we just held. No one is remotely curious about the extent of the problem they are about to inherit. In fact they choose to, talk about the political spin. How they can explain this. Outside the room. I am going to run a clip of, of comey talking abut this from abc news. Well talk about it on the other side. President elect trumps first question was to confirm that it had no impact on the election. And then the conversation to my surprise moved into a a pr conversation about how, the trump team would position this. What they could say about this. They actually started talking drafting a press release with us still sitting there. No within to my recollection, asked, so what, what is coming next from the russians . How might we stop it . Whats the future look like . It was all, what can we say about what they did and how it affects the electioning that we just had . Jeremy, i have only known you during the inception of this broadcast and this broadcast has only been on the air because of the administrationy are covering. Which means the entire time i have known you we have been under attack. From russia. Not a, not a pearl harbor type attack. Its more it is electronic, slow moving. What comey is trying to say. Where was the outrage. Where were the questions. Where was the effort to protect ourselves going forward. Right, brian. Intelligence Community Professionals prepare for months some times years for president ial transitions. Because the the premise is that, a new team is coming. And they need to hear about all of the threats and opportunities but, but first and foremost, the threats facing our country. And so, our Intelligence Community leadership prepares the briefings, for an incoming president. What they want to hear in return is, we got you, we hear you. We are taking it seriously. Instead basically what they got back from the Incoming Trump team was, were not sure this is a real issue. This isnt a threat. Oh, didnt change the outcome of the election which is not an intelligence question. Began to talk plilt cal strategy and spin and pr cycles. That its not only bizarre, weird and out of place to do with the intelligence Community Professionals borderline offensive. It is basically saying, whatever you are telling us, we are going to take on, not as the, stewards of the National Security, but as stewards of our own political fate. And that is totally inconsistent with the Culture Mission and purpose of our defenders of our democracy, our nation, our intelligence professionals. How much trouble is Michael Cohen in and are the people around trump correct when they say that they actually see the case being brought to cohen. The investigation circling in on cohen. The fact that he is under criminal investigation by the Southern District of new york. As being more of a of a threat to, to President Trump, and his presidency than what bob mueller has in his briefcase. Hard to measure relative threats. We dont know all the facts. As we have been saying, brian for many, many months. Almost a year, Michael Cohen was instrumental in helping the Trump Administration reach out to russia develop business relationships with russia. In december of 2015, Michael Cohen was in moscow. Frying to negotiate the construction of trump tower there. This isnt a distant past business enterprise. Going on during the red hot, molten flaming core of the president ial elects. Michael cohen is doing business deals for donald trump. Only nach rat that a lot of scrutiny, a lot of questions are going to come down, on him, and what he knows about, the trump organization, and the relation shm to russia. And, i have to let you go. But one more. What happens to your life. We talk about thee terms every day. You and me and all of our other guests all day long. Into the evening. Under criminal investigation. What does that do to your life, you are just a personal, Walking Around this country. You are under federal criminal investigation. What does that dupe . It freezes your, business relationships. It freezes your social interactions. It causes you to lose a hell of a lot of sleep. Lose a hell of of a lot of money. Freeze your personal relationships. I dont wish it on anybody. We know that Michael Cohen at this hour is going through a tra ma. But of the facts are catching up with him. The facts, facts are catching up with, with those involved in the trump organization. When the fbi is looking at you, not frivolous. Not meaningless. Not a witchhunt. It means serious criminal wrongdoing has unfolded you have a lot to answer for. Jeremy bash, more than capable of handling all of our questions from national defense. And cruise missiles. To, what it is look to be under, criminal investigation. In this case, the president s personal lawyer, jeremy always a pleasure. Thank you so much for staying up with us tonight. Another commercial break for us. Our live coverage continues just on the other side. With new car replacement, if your brand new car gets totaled, Liberty Mutual will pay the entire value plus depreciation. Liberty stands with you. Liberty mutual insurance. Brian williams back with you live in new york. We have been live since first word arrived of tonights u. S. French British Military strike on three different chemical weaponry lated targets. We are going to be able to speak for the First Time Since the attack, some one live on the ground in damascus witnessed what happened there tonight. An independent journalist in damascus. Been in communication with our own, cal perry, independent jurmijur journalist. Able to join via skype. A substantial delay. What indications or did you first see and feel . Around 4 30 in the early hours of this morning. I was awoken by a series of large consecutive bangs which shook my entire neighborhood. From then on i knew it was a u. S. Led attack. Because the, the sound were very different, than usual sound of war you hear in damascus. And they were very large. And, and, very consecutive. So, after the initial 10, 11 rockets which landed there was a period of five minutes where you had syrian air defenses trying to fire at missiles. You had, tracer, fire, being fired into the sky against the rockets. And, s200s. Stationed near the location i am in. I could hear they were being fired, rockets coming in. After that, there was a period of about 20 minutesup had more consecutive strikes on military locations. And, the duration of the actual strike was about 50 minutes long. The entirety of all of the attacks around damascus and further up north, reported. So what we know so far is that three main military sites, military targets have been targeted. The first of those is a Research Facility in east damascus in an area. Thats a Research Facility lab where you have had, accusations of chemical weapons being researched there, et cetera. Second location was a military airport, only airport, of military nature within damascus. The third one was a research lab near where i am in the west of damascus. That is also a very large complex of military research buildings. Now, i could hear the last one very clearly. Because, the rockets landed in an area very close to me the so as you can tell, as we are taking stock of what happened in damascus, the first initial three military targets have been clearly struck. We have had reports from a suspected facility targeted which is related to chemical research. Another one, where air defenses have participated, with syrian air defenses, in bringing, deterring some of the rockets fired there. But throughout the dur raedurat air defenses continue to fire into the sky. What we hear is 13 rockets. Reportedly ben downed . Now this may be kpaj rakpaj rat. However it is consistent with the reporting. And sound of tracer missiles. Tracers, missiles fired into the sky. The attacks have been taken, taken place. And it is clear that there have been limited to the three major sites within dthe history of th war. Targeted sites within and around central damascus. Danny, is it possible to hilt any of these locations that the u. S. , france and uk targeted to night, without, clapt r collate damage, without killing citizens in the area, or military night shift on guard on watch on duty. At the time when the landed. In regard to the three sites. I can give you a quick analysis of how it want down. The first site, which in east damascus is in a populated area. It would have been heard. Perhaps maybe civilian casualties. Cant confirm that at the moment. The second streak in the military airport. A military site. Which isnt near residential areas. Quite a large base. And so it is constipicuous. Military casualties. What ooh have been hearing over three, four days, that air base, in particular has seen an emptying of, sophisticated technology, such as war planes, and, some missiles to other securer locations. Or to russian bases. I doubt the damage is too significant. Now in the third base. Which is a huge section on its own, in western damascus. It is not really near any civilian areas. This was in fact, the first location, the israelis targeted in 2014 if you remember. So, it was, clearly an area very sensitive and significant military importance. Now that area in particular has been denied by state media. What i have been hearing, proximity of site to where i am now, an area in western damascus was definitely struck because, the sound was huge. It shook the entire neighborhood. And my house, you know, the windows were shaking for a couple minutes at least. Thats what we can clearly know is that, these areas, there may be civilian casualties around. It is mainly strictly limited military sites. Hasnt been anything in the area, where you can argue vicinity, area where civilian residents lived or where civilian area. In the region, several reports of attacks. None has been confirmed. And it is further away than damascus. It will take time to understand exactly how things are planned out. But what i can tell you is that this, these attacks have definitely, and conspicuously taken damascus by surprise. We were expecting being here. Been here three months. We were expecting, deescalation. Over three days. Werent expecting an attack to happen today. Especially after the different messages being center out by, by russia, by the french, by trump. And the fact that, that trump stated that, that there would be an attack. But he hasnt specified when. We thought the russians were taking diplomacy on board. This would be sold differently. But to our amazement, the attack happened today. And, for duration of 50 minutes. Different sites within damascus. Possibly syria were targeted by planes and missiles. I could confirm that i heard war planes in the sky as, well as the missles fired. Soap that ultimately adds to the fact it was a two prong add take using war plaepz and missiles. While we take stock, it will be interesting to see what the damage and destruction is and how it is in terms of possible response to syria. Russia and iran over few days and weeks. I suspect that any response will be, will be calm, and, and will definitely take into account, the issue of timing. And may perhaps be in other areas. We have u. S. Troops stationed within syria. So, there is definitely a lot to kid in the period. If there is a response how it will be. Whether it will take time. For now we are taking stock of, of the, the numerous u. S. Attacks on different sites within damascus. And, within broader syria. And as we can, initially we can tell that three strikes, targeted strikes of consecutive rocket attacks have targeted three main military strikes within damascus for the first time. And the monitoring of the situation is continuing. Until we get, gather more information. Well, this has been very valuable to us to hear the reporting. I am about to ask a warrior about your finding. We hate like hell what happened to your country and loss of innocent life there. We are glad you are okay. We thank you for reporting to us and by extension our audience watching all across the country tonight after tonights military, military strike. Danny mackie with us from, we heard too close for comfort to night from some of the impacts in damascus. Well, lets go to retired u. S. Army four star general, Barry Mccaffrey in seattle. Two things i would look to run by you first. First you and i have been under a cruise missiles when they fly overhead. They seem very tough to take down. Is it plausible those were cruise missiles hearing, perhaps intercepted . Could have happened if the russian s400 batteries, Electronic Warfare capability or missiles could potentially have knocked down the tomahawks. See a tomahawk if it is day light. It actually could be engaged with radar guided guns from the ground. But, look, brian, basically, really to echo jeremy bashs statement. This was a very competent, carefully crafted, extremely limited strike. To send a Strong Military signal to the, to the Syrian Armed Forces dont use chemical weapons. And, it appears that largely, it avoided targeting and any significant way the Russian Armed forces on the ground. Potentially the iranians. But you know when you look at the three targets, target celtics. Storeage of chemical weapons. During iran, iraq wars. There are hundred of tons of chemical artillery, missiles, mortars fired at one another. The amount of chemicals required to kill unprotected civilians, in Populated Areas, down in basements, is tiny. So, i, i dont remotely think we have degraded their chemical weapons stock piles at all. There could be 100 barrel bombs in Populated Areas right now. Im some what surprised, there wasnt a major effort to go after the syrian air force, particularly helicopters. That deliver these systems. Then finally if you want to hurt the assad regime, you dont kill privates, you kill generals. So, it doesnt sound as if there was a strike intended to take out their command and control facilities, when they were manned. Now, the coming days, we are about to find out what the reaction of the russians, iranians, syrians will be. They will do something, we havent seen the end of it. But this was a very moderate calculated strike fortunately by, by three nato nations. Not just the u. S. Looking at a very provocative headline in the, in the new york times. President trump talked tough, but his strike on syria, was restrained. And that is exactly the point you are making. General, there is another, another point. Our journalist made. That was he heard war planes above. I was under the impression that certainly the american aircraft were in standoff positions and were not required to spend any time over target, over, places like damascus. Could that have been outgoing aircraft . Well, we will find out probably more tomorrow. When centcom, tampa, florida, the general, commander, starts, getting after bomb Damage Assessment on what occurred. It appears as if, manned aircraft were used. They may well have given the, the brilt brits and french. Separate geographic target areas. It does not apore that s400s were employed. They cannot take on f35 u. S. Stealth air craft. They darn sure can take on the bri brit and french aircraft. Involved in the raid. So, it appears the russians hopefully sat it out. And wont feel compelled to respond. A lot of it, as you heard and reported on, a lot of threats coming out of the russian general staff in moscow. Will not only target your missiles will target the carriers. If they do that, theyll be in a very bad position. You dont want to take on u. S. Naval air power, or u. S. Air force. F35s. Hopefully, secretary mattis, joe dunford appeared to me tried to construct a strike of symbolic and military value that wouldnt get us on the up escalation. General, thank you. It is, it has been a great pleasure for us to be able to, to, have some one like you to ask all of our military questions to tonight. We really appreciate your candid answers. Indeed as we were saying earlier in our coverage. This Carrier Battle Group that the u. S. Has assembled offshore to carry out some of what we have seen tonight is, is is, formidable. And our hope, along with everybody watching we presume, is that all the americans involved, and all of the brilts a brits and all the French Military get back home and landed and gone back to station. And are safe and alive tonight. After this military action we have seen take place in syria, after a seemingly endless day of activity from the from the Trump Administration on the political front, coverage of all of it will continue at the top of the hour after this break. But im not standing still. And with godaddy, ive made my ideas real. I made my own way, now its time to make yours. Everything is working, working, just like it should good evening everyone from msnbc news headquarters in new york. Were continuing our coverage of the coordinated military strikes against syria chemicals weapons program. Along with allies including britain and france. Targeting through sites near damascus. A Research Facility, Storage Facility and command and control facility. The stated goal to degrade syrias ability to launch chemical weapons attacks. President trump saying this earlier at the white house. The purpose of our actions tonight is to establish a stronger deterrent a