Satellite images show damage brought by US military strike in Syria

Air Strike in Douma — Civil Defence members run amidst debris after a strike on the rebel held besieged city of Douma, in the eastern Damascus suburb of Ghouta, Syria November 8, 2016. Reuters/Bassam Khabieh

Satellite images show the extent of damage brought by 59 US Tomahawk missiles at Syria's Shayrat airfield in comparison to previous records. It is unclear how soon after the strikes the imageries from ImageSat International were recorded.

The images show two hardened aircraft hangars on the airfield's east with holes in their roofs. It appeared that there were charring and debris spraying out of them. Two craters were found near one of the hangars. The third is totally wiped out as the building next to it.

Syria's state TV presented footage of orange flashes that lit the sky. Another short clip which shows smoke billowing in the distance surfaced.

CNN reports that two US senior military officials said at least 20 planes were destroyed. A defence official said 58 out of 59 missiles launched "severely degraded or destroyed" their intended targets.

According to Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis, initial indications are that this strike had critically damaged or destroyed Syrian aircraft and support infrastructure and equipment. "[They] targeted aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage, ammunition supply bunkers, air defence systems, and radars,” he said per Reuters.

The US is currently assessing the result of the missiles strike it ordered while expressing hope that the administration of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had learned its lesson. Davis added that it’s the regime’s choice if more US military action would be necessary.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that the missile attack caused damage to more than a dozen hangars, an air defence base and a fuel depot. The strike allegedly took the lives of seven Syrian soldiers and left nine wounded.

The United States said the airfield was used to accomplish the recent chemical weapons attack on rebel-held Khan Sheikhoun. The attack claimed the lives of at least 86 townspeople, including children.

Meanwhile, Russia was quick to condemn the attack, describing it as an "aggression against a sovereign state" and an infringement of international law. Alexei Pushkov, the head of information policy commission in the upper house of Russian parliament, took to Twitter before the strike to warn that if US President Donald Trump orders a military action in Syria, it would put him in the same league with former US Presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama. On Thursday, the president called for all civilised nations to unite with the US as it seeks an end to the “slaughter and bloodshed in Syria.”