US Strikes on Syria Came Close to Clash With Russia: Medvedev

U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Porter conducts strike operations against Syria while in the Mediterranean Sea. Ford Williams/Courtesy U.S. Navy

PALM BEACH, Fla./MOSCOW/BEIRUT—U.S. cruise missile strikes on a Syrian air base were one step away from clashing with the Russian military, RussianPrime Minister Dmitry Medvedev charged on Friday, underscoring the risks in President Donald Trump’s first major foray into the Syrian civil war.

U.S. officials informed Russian forces ahead of the strikes, which were intended to punish the Syrian government for what they said was a chemical weapons attack, and avoided hitting Russian personnel.

In the biggest foreign policy decision of his presidency, Trump ordered a step his predecessor Barack Obama never took: targeting the Syrian military. Washington says Syrian government forces carried out a poison gas attack in northern Syria this week that killed at least 70 people.

The U.S. action catapulted Washington into confrontation with Russia, which has military advisers on the ground aiding its ally, President Bashar al-Assad.

Shayrat Airfield in Homs, Syria in an image released by the Pentagon after announcing U.S. forces conducted a cruise missile strike against the Syrian Air Force airfield. DigitalGlobe/Courtesy U.S. Department of Defense