did asaad did the russians hear the message. and on that front, how much information did the u.s. give to the russians before the strikes? did russia know what was coming? reporter: well, this is an interesting question, because because of the ongoing u.s. operations in syria against isis, which is in another part of the country, the u.s. and the russian military have a deconfliction line. essentially telephone communication that they re on routinely all the time. they deconflict those air operations in the southern mission. it sounds complicated, but they want to make sure they know where everybody is in the air space. the u.s. used that mechanism, we re told by authorities, before this series of air strikes. not to tell the russians exactly where they would be, but to give them a broad general idea of where u.s. air craft, u.s. missiles might be flying, and they included damascus and homes
chemical used, do you know what it was? was it nerve agent, was it chlorine or do you have a sense of what it was? we are very much aware of one of the agents, there may have been more than one agent used. we are not clear on that yet. we know at least one chemical agent was used. i just want to clayfy on the deconfliction line, you notified the russian as head of time before the operation began what you were going to do and what targets to strike. i ll be clear, the only communications that took place specifically associated with this operation before the targets were struck was the normal deconfliction of the air space, the procedures that are in place for all operations in syria. general dunn foford he mentid that they engaged but syrian state is saying they shot down
damascus wakes up is their view on just how successful this military action was. i think it s significant that we did not here from either chairman dunford or secretary mattis that this was a successful military operation. they gave us the legal justification. they gave us the rationale. they gave us the targets. they gave us the intent. the intent was deterrence. but we still don t know how successful it was in hitting the targets. we ll get all that tomorrow when we get something called a bda, battle damage assessment. i think that s key to look for in the next 12 to 24 hours. i also think it s significant, though, that they said and this came directly from general dunford, that the russians did not engage their air defense systems. they kept their guns silent. the fact that the russians kept their guns silent and there was a conversation over that deconfliction line between the u.s. side and the russian side gives you an indication of how the pentagon wants to make sure that this
with his tweet had returned by last night, courtney. the russians, though, were they surprised or were they notified? what is your understanding? so the notification the military is very careful to say it was in coordination with the russians. they do notify notify them to avoid a problem in the air. there were manned u.s. and allied aircraft in the air. in an area where they are not usually flying. there were also cruise missiles flying over where russian and syrian military are operating. the u.s. wanted to avoid any kind of problem in the air. they a deconfliction line. they said you re going to want to make sure you re clear from there. the level of complexity, france, uk, america, all operating in that small space, tom hawks, british crews missiles, and airplanes from all three countries. how long does it take to put that together?
chlorine? do you have a sense of what it was? we are very much aware of one of the agents, there may have been more than one agent used. we are not clear on that yet. we know at least one chemical agent was used. i just want to clarify on the deconfliction line, you notified the russians ahead of time before the operation began what you were going to do and what targets you were going to strike? to be clear, the only communications that took place specifically associated with this operation before the targets were struck was the normal deconfliction of the airspace, the procedures in place for all of our operations in syria. general dunford, you mentioned that the syria air defenses had engaged the syrian state tv is saying they shot down 13 tomhawk missiles. can you refute that? i can t tell you the results.