Early today starts right now. A lot to cover this morning. Good morning. Im yasmin vossoughian. Im frances rivera. Very busy to end your workweek. All eyes on syria this morning after the United States launched 59 tomahawk cruise missiles targeting a syrian airfield. T special edition. Its a friday morning. We end the week with a lot of breaking news. Yeah. Incredibly momentous things going on in the last 24 hours. If youre just waking up to this, let us tell you what we know. Two Navy Destroyers fired 59 tomahawk missiles at the shayrat airfield. That was where the planes take off in this weeks reporter what were hearing this morning is these tomahawk missiles killed six to seven people depending on the sources. Thats the number weve been hearing from various different groups and almost all of them, if not all of them, were military personnel at this base. Now what were also hearing, and this would be surprising if true, is the Russian Defense ministry is saying fewer than t richard engel. Richard, good morning to you. Reporter good morning. This operation was limited. It was specific. And seems designed to specifically prevent the u. S. From getting drawn more deeply into the Syrian Civil War or putting american pilots at risk. Its significant that cruised missiles were used, not manned fighter jets, which could have been shot down by air defenses. U. S. Navy warships in the Eastern Mediterranean, launched 59 cruise missiles against a Syrian Military base. It was retaliation by President Trump, for a horrific chemical weapons attack, the u. S. Blamed on the syrian regime. Tonight, i ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in syria, from where the chemical attack was launched. Reporter the cruise missiles destroying syrian aircraft, harden hardened hangars, fuel depots. The u. S. Says it has radar images that track the aircraft used in the chemical attack back to this base. And the reactions came quickly this morning. The syrians calling the strike, blatant aggression. And the russians calling it an act of ainvestigation against a sovereign state. No syrian troops were dib deliberately targeted. It is in the vitale interest of the United States, to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons. Reporter it was a limited, even symbolic strike, unlikely to threaten Bashar Al Assads grip on power. An official says russia was warned ahead of him the to keep personnel away and avoid an escalation. The goal, an official tells nbc news, was a proportionate response to the chemical attack. And to send a message to the world, in a the u. S. Under President Trump will act militarily and quickly. That was also directed at the dinner guest while the strikes were under way, the president of china. Arguably, the only world leader who can influence north korea. While its been hours since the u. S. Military strike, the reactions were hearing from syria and russia so far, have been fairly muted. This seems like it was a oneoff strike by the u. S. And it does not seem to be escalating, at least yet. Richard engel on the story. Richard, thank you very much. As just mentioned, President Trump announced that from the maralago estate, where he was meeting with chinas president. Hallie jackson is there. Good morning. Reporter good morning to you. And today is about the aftermath of that strike. Administration official tells me that President Trump was briefed at mar laralago in a secure r asking about foreign counterparts to members of congress. The mood inside that room, cautiously confident about the strike. The president s most defining military moment yet. From inside his maralago estate, donald trump explaining his most consequential decision so far as commander in chief. There can be no dispute that syria used chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the chemical weapons convention, and ignored the urging of the u. N. Security council. Reporter the president made no mention of moscow. But his secretary of state did. Calling the kremlin, quote, complicit or simply incompetent in its ability to followthrough on a 2013 deal to get chemical weapons out of syria. And for President Trump, a striking shift. In 2013, he repeatedly warned the Obama Administration to, stay out of syria. Just last week, his own administration called the assad regime a political reality. I think the status and the longer term the longerterm status of president assad will be decided by the syrian people. Reporter now, a reversal, as the images after the attack. The children struggling to breathe seemed to horrify the president. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. Reporter and former rival hillary clinton, who said this about assad, just hours before the air stroike. I really believe that we should have and still should take out his airfields and prevent him from being able to use them to bomb innocent people and drop sarin gas on them. Reporter still, on capitol hill, concern from some about why the president didnt consult with congress first. It does concern me that we not have an impulsive administration, that is ready to completely change direction, that isnt necessarily thinking through what are all of the consequences. Reporter President Trump will spend his day juggling not just that fallout and any fallout from moscow, but also the threat from north korea, something at the top of his agenda. For his meetings here with the chinese president , day two set to begin later today. A lot going on where you are. Hallie jackson, thank you. As we mentioned, the strikes drew some sharp criticism from the kremlin overnight, further complicating the u. S. russia relationship. Bill neely is in moscow this morning. Good morning to you. Reporter good morning, matt. Russia taking a couple of swipes at the u. S. Within the last few minutes. Russias Defense Ministry claiming that only 25 of the 59 cruise missiles actually hit the target. Russias defense minister saying the combat effectiveness was very low. And from the kremlin, strong but limited criticism. Vladimir putin didnt speak directly. But his spokesman called this an act of aggression against a sovereign country that violates international law. And repeated the russian belief that seyria does not have chemical weapons and this strike was unjustified. All of that predictable. Russia is suspending a safety agreement that helps prevent russia and american aircraft from colliding over syria. Its only suspending that agreement, not pulling out altogether. The kremlin accepting, conceding that it was warned, that russia was warned in advance of the air strikes. And sergey lavrov, the foreign minister saying, i dont think any of this will lead to an irreversible situation. Limited air strikes. Limited condemnation from russia. Putin meeting his National Security advisers to discuss what the u. S. Might do next and what is certain, for now, there will be no change in russias support for president assad. Matt . Savannah . Bill, thank you very much. Lets bring our nbc news analyst. Jack jacobs, jeremy bash, the former chief of staff at the pentagon and cia, and james stefritas. Jeremy, let me start with you. What ive been reading overnight from the military experts that this was limited. It was on the lower end of what was available to the administration. Was it the right strike at the right time . Well, it was smart, matt. It was wellexecuted. It was a moral statement. And my view is that this missile salvo must be followed up with a diplomatic salvo. As president obama learned and President Trump will see, theres no military solution to this 6yearold civil war. We have a lot of equities there in syria. We want to continue the fight against isis. We want to keep our powder dry, to some extent. But we need sassad out of there. Only diplomacy can do that. What is the lukely response . The response from russia is muted. What is assad likely to do . He wont do anything. He will take a deep breath and hope we dont strike again. Jeremys right. Theres a diplomatic valsalvo t come here. It has to be focused on russia. Assad is not a decisionmaker here. The decisionmaker is Vladimir Putin. I think the strike was proportional, legal and very wellexecuted. Good day for the navy to put 60 of these things on target. Admiral, lets stick with you. Talk about the weapon that was used, the tomahawk cruise missile. They hit the harden hangars where aircraft was kept, maybe some fuel supplies. Some may be wondering why the runway itself wasnt taken out. Explain it. Its hard to take out a runway because they can be quickly repaired. We have some bombs that the air force has thats particularly good at this. A tomahawk is a terrific weapon. Its so accurate, we can choose to put it through the 49th street door or the 50th street door at 30 rock. It is a capable weapon. Ive launched hundreds of these. And the hit rate is very, very high. The next question is now what . You hear that russia has temporarily suspended the deconfliction agreement. Has syria become a more dangerous place this morning . Theres a limited objective. The president was also playing to a domestic audience. And when russia says, were going to stop all of the deconfliction stuff, theyre playing to a domestic audience, as well. We wanted to stop assad from using chemical weapons. The red line has been about chemical weapons. But assad has shown over the last five or six years, that hes willing to kill hundreds of thousands of his own civilians using conventional weapons, as well. Do we send a message with this strike that were reconsidering that line, as well . I dont think so. I think that the bifurcation is chemical weapons or no chemical weapons. 500,000 syrians have been killed so far, probably more in this war, with conventional weapons. That is probably not going to stop. And were not making a public committed to do more than weve done. Colonel jacobs, admiral stavritas, and jeremy. Thank you very much. Were joined by marco rubio. Thank you for being with us. Let me tet your take on this strike. We heard it called symbolic. Limited. You used to rail against pinprick strikes. Is this a pinprick strike . It had a clear military objective. That is to degrade a specific airfield. The one thats most active right now in that conflict for the assad regime. And the airfield in syria, which was the one that was used to conduct a chemical attack a few days ago. In the process of destroying that airfield, they took out aircraft that were used in that mission. That had a clear objective. And they put the appropriate resources in order to achieve that. And lets remember, this strike is legal. It is in further ranance of an agreement that russia and america are supposed to be guarantors of. Thats not the case. Theyre in violation of it. And number three, it was in our National Security interests. Theres hundreds of troops in the region, including in syria, working as advisers and the like. Theyre in danger of being exposed to sarin gas, if its being deployed in the future. You talk about the deal that was supposed to result in the assad regime losing all its chemical weapons. In a was brokered by the russians. And the administration, the president , has been incredibly silent when it comes to russias role in complicity in this situation. What would you hike to hear President Trump say this morning about the russian and their involvement . I dont think they were silent last night. That airfield that was struck is an airfield the russians have flown out of. In addition to degrading assads capability, it degraded the russia capability. Didnt the russians get a head up to move some of their equipment out of there . I think they moved some of the people. Thats a milltomill contact. Were not at war with rush. And the objective was not to kill russians or syrian troops. It was to degrade the facility. If they had not gotten the headsup, as is customary when youre not at war with someone. If russians had been killed, we would have a different situation this morning. If russians were killed, they have no one to blame but themselves. Take us forward here, senator. After this strike, its unlikely that assad stops his assault on his own people. Maybe not with chemical weapons. Maybe with more conventional weapons. What options are left open for the Trump Administration . I think this morning, Bashar Al Assad and Vladimir Putin and iran and others have a different cost benefit analysis. Right now, they could act with impunity and they knew what the risk were of doing that, that was international condemnation. Now, i think theyre in a position where they have to wonder, what will happen if we do this . I think it has the potential to impact behavior. Second, i do believe that we need to now move forward through a combination of diplomacy and the support of groups on the ground, particularly nonjihadist sunni groups to create alternatives to the assad regime. We need to reach out to our friends in the world, who have an interest in what happens in northern syria, to become part of the solution, that i think begins to create an alternative to assad in syria. Sorry to interrupt. Were short on time. Were you personally surprised to see how quickly President Trump seemed to have a change of heart on this issue . As recently as last week, you had members of his administration saying, it was political reality that assad would stay. Then, we have a chemical attack. And back in 2013, trump said dont go into syria. Its not in Americas National interest. What changed . We dont have, as you said, a lot of time to go through the differences. This is not similar to 2013 for a lot of reasons. Assad was losing the war in 13. If we had supported some of the elements on the ground that were not jihadists, he would have fallen. The ugs russians got involved in 15 and changed the dynamic. And we have troops on the ground. And as far as change of heart, i think the president was deeply and personally impacted. Theres a difference between being a candidate and being the president , and seeing the photos and having the weight on your shoulders. I believe it weighed on him, as a person, as a human being. I think you saw that in day before, the press conference with the king of jordan. Were going to have more on the air strikes. Our coverage continues through the morning. Lets get a check of the weather. Talking about the tornados. And we continue after yesterday to see the real runup of the tornadoes, really a fast start this year. 61 tornados in the last 7 days. So far this year, were almost at 500 tornadoes over 28 states. And if you average that out, were almost double what we should have. And unfortunately, weve seen more death so far due to tornadoes than we did all of last yore. Today, were looking at a major storm moving its way into the pacific northwest. Well look at that more coming up in the next half hour. Some flooding problems and snow in Northern New England in update new york. Windy along the midatlantic coast. Ferries have been canceled along good morning, im first alert meteorologist erika martin with the first alert forecast. Were tracking weather for the phillies home opener. Gusty, temperatures in the 40s. Models showing its going to be pretty much dry. Rain skirting us. By the weekend, sunshine in store. Im tracking 80s by monday and tuesday. Clouds develop by wednesday. Overall, a nice stretch for the weekend, and a nice start to the following workweek. And thats your latest weather. R. Guys . Thank you very much. Coming up, the power struggle inside the Trump Administration thats being exposed by the u. S. Strike on syria. And what is the next step for the president . As he faces his first major Foreign Policy test. Well talk about that. First, this is today on nbc. Savings at giant. Only at my giant. Just ahead, the tributes pouring in for comedy icon don rickles, who died on thursday. Were going to look back at his contrary to ancient wisdom. The sun doesnt rise, we do. 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