Syria has been attacked just as it had a chance for peace, Russia's foreign ministry says, hours after US, British and French forces pounded Damascus with air strikes in response to a suspected poison gas attack last week.
US President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin Photo: AFP PHOTO / SPUTNIK / Mikhail KLIMENTYEV
"First the 'Arab spring' tested the Syrian people, then Islamic State, now smart American rockets. The capital of a sovereign government, trying for years to survive under terrorist aggression, has been attacked," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook.
"You have to be quite abnormal to attack Syria's capital just at the moment when it had a chance for a peaceful future."
Russia's ambassador to the United States said there would be consequences for the military strikes, adding that it was not acceptable to insult Russia's president.
"A pre-designed scenario is being implemented," Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said on Twitter.
"Again, we are being threatened. We warned that such actions will not be left without consequences."
Mr Antonov said: "Insulting the President of Russia is unacceptable and inadmissible."
"The US - the possessor of the biggest arsenal of chemical weapons - has no moral right to blame other countries," he added.
Announcing the strikes, US President Donald Trump criticised both Russia and Iran, which have backed Assad's government.
"What kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women and children?" Mr Trump asked.
Syrian state television said Russian forces had shot down more than a dozen missiles.