Responsibility for Assad's gas attack – as it happened

We're going to close our rolling coverage of the primary direct army strikes by the USA against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, in what Donald Trump described as essential retaliation for a chemical guns assault that killed dozens of civilians, which include children, in advance this week.

Fifty-nine Tomahawk missiles, released earlier than sunrise from warships within the eastern Mediterranean, threatened hopes for Russian-American rapprochement just beforehand of the first important assembly between Washington, which has armed anti-Assad rebels, and Moscow, which has held Assad up against them.

Secretary of state Rex Tillerson will travel to Moscow on Tuesday, just three days after the United States ambassador to the UN stated Russia shouldered blame within the chemical weapons assault.