U.S. military launches tomahawk cruise missile attack against Syria

U.S. officials say the military launched an attack Thursday composed of 50 tomahawk missiles against targets in Syria in order to hinder Assad's chemical weapon capabilities.

The target of the attack was a Syrian airbase from which President Bashar al-Assad is suspected of launching his chemical attack on civilians. CNN is told that this is the only attack planned as of yet, but that decision might change.

The US has fired about 50 tomahawk missiles into Syria, per CNN’s @barbarastarrcnn https://t.co/r3wZywkbF5 https://t.co/1IUs4l21Gx

— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) April 7, 2017

Earlier in the day President Trump said that he was moved greatly by pictures and video from Syria of a gas attack attributed to Bashar al-Assad, and signaled that he was in favor of regime change. Secretary of State Tillerson said that there was no doubt Assad was to blame for the attacks.

In the previous week, the Trump administration had said through State Secretary Tillerson and Ambassador Nikki Haley that they were no longer interested in toppling Assad, but the chemical attack appears to have reversed that policy.

Critics like Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said that the announcement against regime change only emboldened Assad to attack civilians though such a horrifying manner.

Charles Krauthammer said the same earlier Thursday, and advocated a limited attack on Assad in order to enforce the norm against using chemical weapons.