Updated April 10, 2017 08:48:47

A joint command centre made up of the forces of Russia, Iran and militias supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says the US strike on a Syrian air base crossed "red lines" and it will respond "with force" to any new aggression.

On Friday the United States fired dozens of cruise missiles at a Syrian air base which it said had been used to launch a chemical weapons attack which killed dozens of civilians earlier in the week.

The attack escalated the US role in Syria and drew criticism from Mr Assad's allies, including Russia and Iran.

The missile attack came after years of heated debate and deliberation in Washington over intervention in Syria's bloody civil war.

"What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines," said the statement published by the group on media outlet Ilam al Harbi (War Media).

"From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well."

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, meanwhile, blamed Russian inaction for helping enable the chemical weapons attack it had reacted to, saying Moscow had failed to carry out a 2013 agreement to secure and destroy chemical weapons in Syria.

He said the United States expected Russia to take a tougher stance against Syria by rethinking its alliance with Mr Assad because "every time one of these horrific attacks occurs, it draws Russia closer into some level of responsibility".

"The failure related to the recent strike and the recent terrible chemical weapons attack in large measure is a failure on Russia's part to achieve its commitment to the international community," Mr Tillerson said on ABC America's This Week program.

Britain also said Russia bore responsibility by proxy for civilian deaths in Syria last week.

"If Russia wants to be absolved of responsibility for future attacks, [President] Vladimir Putin needs to enforce commitments, dismantle Assad's chemical weapons arsenal for good and get fully engaged," British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon wrote in the Sunday Times newspaper.

On Sunday, Russia's Foreign Ministry criticised a decision by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to cancel a visit to Moscow later this month, saying it showed a lack of understanding of events in Syria.

The ministry also said it showed there was little to gain from talking to Britain, which it said had no real influence over world affairs.

Putin, Rouhani says US attack not acceptable

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran's Hassan Rouhani said in a phone call that aggressive US actions against Syria were not permissible and violated international law, the Kremlin said on Sunday.

The two leaders also called for an objective investigation into the chemical weapons deaths in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, and said they were ready to deepen cooperation to fight terrorism, the Kremlin said in a statement on its website.

Last week, the Trump administration said getting involved in the Syrian conflict would be "silly". Today the US carried out a military strike against an airbase in the country.

Syrian army forces had been losing ground across the country until Russia intervened militarily in September 2015, propping up Mr Assad and protecting its own interests in the region.

For years we have been aware of evidence that Bashar al-Assad may not have declared all of his chemical weapons stockpiles — and these strikes highlight the dilemma about what to do now, writes Matt Brown.

Mr Assad has also drawn heavily on foreign Shiite militias sponsored by Iran, led by Lebanon's Hezbollah group, for his most important gains since the Russian intervention.

The joint command centre also said the presence of US troops in northern Syria, where Washington has hundreds of special forces helping the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to oust Islamic State militants, was "illegal" and that Washington had a long-term plan to occupy the area.

The regional alliance said Friday's cruise missile strikes would not deter their forces from "liberating" all of Syrian territory.

Many Syrians opposed to Mr Assad's rule consider Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iranian-backed troops as occupiers seeking to drive out mainly Sunni Syrians from the areas they live in.

They hold Iran and its allies responsible for the displacement of millions outside the country.

They also see Russia as a foreign occupier whose relentless aerial bombardment of rebel-held areas has led to thousands of civilian casualties.

Some accuse Moscow of applying a "scorched-earth policy" that targets hospitals, schools and residential areas more than frontlines to break the resolve of the anti-Assad insurgency.

Reuters

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, world-politics, foreign-affairs, syrian-arab-republic, russian-federation, united-states, iran-islamic-republic-of

First posted April 10, 2017 05:07:15