The Trump administration has been sending mixed messages on Syria, but President Donald Trump and United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley indicated Wednesday that the US might be putting military action on the table in light of a recent chemical attack.

The Tuesday attack on a rebel-held town in northwest Syria killed at least 70 people. The Syrian military blamed it on rebels, but activists in the country say President Bashar al-Assad's forces are responsible.

Trump said at a press conference Wednesday that the attack crossed "beyond a red line" and had changed his attitude toward the Assad regime. The Trump administration had previously indicated that ousting Assad, a brutal leader who has committed atrocities against his own people, wasn't a priority.

Also on Wednesday, Haley told the UN Security Council that when the UN "consistently fails in its duty to act collectively, there are times in the life of states that we are compelled to take our own action," a possible hint at US military intervention.

But the administration has been sending mixed messages on Syria, and Trump on Wednesday emphasized that he wasn't going to reveal his plan, saying he doesn't like to say what he's going to be doing militarily.

Here's a look at what key people have said recently on the Syrian conflict, which is stretching into its sixth year as rebels fight to oust Assad.

Donald Trump

Trump has been all over the map on Syria.

In 2013, he urged then-President Barack Obama against military action, tweeting, "AGAIN, TO OUR VERY FOOLISH LEADER, DO NOT ATTACK SYRIA - IF YOU DO MANY VERY BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN & FROM THAT FIGHT THE U.S. GETS NOTHING!" In another tweet that month, he said, "stay out of Syria."

But Trump said Wednesday that he likes to be flexible in his positions.

"That attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me. Big impact," Trump said. "That was a horrible, horrible thing. And I've been watching it and seeing it and it doesn't get any worse than that." 

The president continued: "It's very, very possible, and I will tell you it's already happened, that my attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much."

Trump's statement on Tuesday addressing the attack didn't go quite this far.

"Today's chemical attack in Syria against innocent people, including women and children, is reprehensible and cannot be ignored by the civilized world," Trump said in the statement, calling the attack "heinous" and attributing it to the Assad regime.

He also pivoted this week to criticizing Obama for not taking action in Syria years ago that could have put and end to the civil war.

In 2012, Obama drew a "red line" and threatened military action if the Assad regime used chemical weapons, but then backtracked once evidence surfaced of such an attack. He opted instead to broker a deal in which the Assad regime agreed to remove chemical weapons from Syria. Trump now calls this a mistake.

"I think the Obama administration had a great opportunity to solve this crisis a long time ago when he said the red line in the sand," Trump said. "And when he didn't cross that line after making the threat, I think that set us back a long ways, not only in Syria but in many other parts of the world because it was a blank threat."

Nikki Haley

Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, has also made differing statements on Syria.

Just last week, Haley said the Trump administration's priority "is no longer to sit and focus on getting Assad out."

"Do we think he's a hindrance? Yes," she told reporters. "Are we going to sit there and focus on getting him out? No."

And also last week, when asked at a Council on Foreign Relations event whether a political solution in Syria would include a timeline for Assad stepping down, Haley stayed vague.

"I'm not going to go back into should Assad be in or out," she said. "Been there, done that, right, in terms of what the US has done. But I will tell you that he is a big hindrance in trying to move forward."

But Haley's language got stronger after the chemical attack this week.

"When the United Nations consistently fails in its duty to act collectively, there are times in the life of states that we are compelled to take our own action," Haley told the UN Security Council on Wednesday, appearing to allude to the possibility of US intervention in Syria if such attacks continue.

She also pinned blame on Russia and Iran, Syria's main allies, for not putting a stop to the attacks.

The Russian government has denied any responsibility for Tuesday's attack, saying Wednesday that the toxic gas was released accidentally when a Syrian air strike hit a "terrorist warehouse" containing "toxic substances."

Rex Tillerson

So far during his tenure as secretary of state, Rex Tillerson has been reluctant to call on Assad to step down. He has also pinned blame on Russia and Iran for failing to stop chemical attacks in Syria.

Tillerson told reporters while he was in Turkey last week that the "longer-term status" of Assad would "be decided by the Syrian people."

And he released a statement on the chemical attack on Tuesday, saying the US "strongly condemns" such actions, but stopping short of saying that Assad must go.

"While we continue to monitor the terrible situation, it is clear that this is how Bashar al-Assad operates: with brutal, unabashed barbarism," Tillerson said in the statement.

Tillerson also said Russia and Iran "bear great moral responsibility for these deaths."

"Those who defend and support him, including Russia and Iran, should have no illusions about Assad or his intentions," Tillerson said. "Anyone who uses chemical weapons to attack his own people shows a fundamental disregard for human decency and must be held accountable."

Tillerson hinted that it is Syria's allies, rather than the US, that are responsible for stopping future attacks.

In the statement, he called on Russia and Iran to "exercise their influence over the Syrian regime and to guarantee that this sort of horrific attack never happens again."

SEE ALSO: Trump blames chemical attack in Syria on the Obama administration's 'weakness and irresolution'

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The crisis in Syria reached new, heartbreaking heights on Tuesday when one of the most devastating chemical attacks left dozens of people — including many children — dead or critically injured.

While watching a humanitarian disaster unfold before your eyes across the world may make you feel powerless, there are some things you can do to aid the people still in Syria, and the 4.8 million refugees who have fled their country since the civil war began nearly six years ago.

Here are some actions you can take to help:

SEE ALSO: The deadly chemical attack is the latest to hit Syria in 6 years of brutal civil war — here's what happened

DON'T MISS: TRUMP: Syria chemical-weapons attack crossed 'beyond a red line,' and my attitude has changed

Donate to a charity

These 13 organizations received three or four stars (out of four) from Charity Navigator, an independent non-profit that rates charities based on their financial management and accountability. Here are links to their websites, listed in alphabetical order:

American Refugee Committee

CARE

Catholic Relief Services

Global Hope Network International

GlobalGiving

Helping Hand for Relief and Development

International Rescue Committee

Islamic Relief USA

Mercy-USA for Aid and Development

Oxfam America

Palestine Children's Relief Fund

Save the Children

United States Fund for UNICEF

Volunteer

Your time can be even more valuable than your money.

Instead of (or in addition to) donating to a charity helping Syrian refugees, volunteer with them.

Contact any of the charities listed on the previous slide (plus find more from USAID here) and ask them how you can give your time.

You can also join Doctors Without Borders and go to Syria or a European country where refugees have fled to.

If you live in several European countries or Canada, you can also list your home as a place where Syrian refugees can stay (sort of like a free Airbnb).

Educate yourself and others

Learn more about the crisis from official sources, and educate your friends and family about what you discover. The more you know about the crisis, the more you can help.

Here is more information about the situation in Syria from the United Nations Refugee Agency and the USAID Center For International Disaster Information.

Keep up with the latest news on Business Insider's Syria page.

Images showing the aftermath of a chemical attack in northwestern Syria put a spotlight on the devastation there, which claimed the lives of at least 70 civilians on Tuesday.

Abdel Hameed Alyousef, a 29-year-old shop owner and father to 9-month-old twins, lost his family in the attack of a town called Khan Sheikhoun, the Associated Press reported.

The newswire service on Wednesday published a striking photo of the distraught father as he sat inside of a vehicle cradling his toddlers' lifeless bodies.

"Say goodbye, baby, say goodbye," Alyousef said, according to the AP.

"I was right beside them and I carried them outside the house with their mother," he continued. "They were conscious at first, but 10 minutes later we could smell the odor."

After the twins and his wife fell ill, he brought them to the attention of paramedics and left to look for the rest of his family, thinking his wife and children would eventually recover, the AP reported. He eventually found the bodies of two of his brothers, two nephews, and a niece.

Later, he discovered both his children and wife had died.

"I couldn't save anyone — they're all dead now," he said.

Alyousef himself may have also been exposed to the alleged chemicals. "Abdel Hameed is in very bad shape," Alyousef's cousin said. "But he's especially broken down over his massive loss."

At least 70 people have died from Tuesday's air strikes that many allege were to have been conducted by Syrian President Bashar Assad's military, given that Syrian rebels do not have direct access to air assets.

Though the UN and other world leaders condemned the attack, less than 24 hours afterward more airstrikes were reported to have hit the same towns.

This was not the first time stirring images of Syrian children made waves across social media. In 2015, a picture of a drowned Syrian toddler captured worldwide attention amid a growing refugee crisis.

SEE ALSO: The Trump administration seems to be hinting at military intervention in Syria

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BEIRUT (AP) — Diplomats at the U.N. Security Council sparred Wednesday over whether to hold President Bashar Assad's government responsible for a chemical weapons attack that killed more than 80 people in northern Syria, while U.S. intelligence officials, Doctors Without Borders and the U.N. health agency said evidence pointed to nerve gas exposure.

The Trump administration and other world leaders said the Syrian government was to blame, but Moscow, a key ally of Assad, said the assault was caused by a Syrian airstrike that hit a rebel stockpile of chemical arms.

Early U.S. assessments showed the use of chlorine gas and traces of the nerve agent sarin in the attack Tuesday that terrorized the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun, according to two U.S. officials who weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.

Israeli military intelligence officers also believe Syrian government forces were behind the attack, Israeli defense officials told The Associated Press. Israel believes Assad has tons of chemical weapons still in his arsenal, despite a concerted operation three years ago by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to rid the government of its stockpile, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to the media. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also blamed the Syrian government for the attack.

In Khan Sheikhoun, rescue workers found terrified survivors still hiding in shelters as another wave of airstrikes battered the town Wednesday. Those strikes appeared to deliver only conventional weapons damage.

Among those discovered alive were two women and a boy found hiding in a shelter beneath their home, the Civil Defense search and rescue group told the AP.

The effects of the attack overwhelmed hospitals around the town, leading paramedics to send patients to medical facilities across rebel-held areas in northern Syria, as well as to Turkey. The Turkish Health Ministry said three victims died receiving treatment inside its borders. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group put the toll at 86 killed.

Victims of the attack showed signs of nerve gas exposure, the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders said, including suffocation, foaming at the mouth, convulsions, constricted pupils and involuntary defecation. Paramedics were using fire hoses to wash the chemicals from the bodies of victims.

Medical teams also reported smelling bleach on survivors of the attack, suggesting chlorine gas was also used, Doctors Without Borders said.

The magnitude of the attack was reflected in the images of the dead — children piled in heaps for burial, a father carrying his lifeless young twins.

The visuals from the scene were reminiscent of a 2013 nerve gas attack on the suburbs of Damascus that left hundreds dead and prompted an agreement brokered by the U.S. and Russia to disarm Assad's chemical stockpile. Western nations blamed government forces for that attack, where effects were concentrated on opposition-held areas.

At the Vatican, Pope Francis said during his general audience that he was "watching with horror at the latest events in Syria," and that he "strongly deplored the unacceptable massacre."

Tuesday's attack happened just 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Turkish border, and the Turkish government — a close ally of Syrian rebels — set up a decontamination center at a border crossing in the province of Hatay, where the victims were initially treated before being moved to hospitals.

At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley warned the Trump administration would take action if the Security Council did not in response to the attack.

"When you kill innocent children, innocent babies — babies, little babies — with a chemical gas that is so lethal, people were shocked to hear what gas it was, that crosses many, many lines," Donald Trump said in the White House Rose Garden. The president declined to say what the U.S. would do in response, but he did say that his "attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much."

The council was convened in an emergency session to consider a resolution that would back an investigation by the chemical weapons watchdog into the attack and compel the Syrian government to cooperate with a probe. It was drafted by the U.S., Britain and France.

Syria's government denied it carried out any chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun, but Russia's Defense Ministry said the toxic agents were released when a Syrian airstrike hit a rebel chemical weapons arsenal and munitions factory on the town's eastern outskirts.

British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft dismissed that account, saying the U.K. had seen nothing that would suggest rebels "have the sort of chemical weapons that are consistent with the symptoms that we saw yesterday."

Diplomats were also meeting in Brussels for a major donors' conference on the future of Syria and the region. Representatives from 70 countries were present.

A top Syrian rebel representative said he held U.N. mediator Staffan De Mistura "personally responsible" for the attack. Mohammad Alloush, the rebels' chief negotiator at U.N.-mediated talks with the Syrian government, said the envoy must begin labeling the Syrian government as responsible for killing civilians. He said the U.N.'s silence "legitimizes" the strategy.

"The true solution for Syria is to put Bashar Assad, the chemical weapons user, in court, and not at the negotiations table," said Alloush, who is an official in the Islam Army rebel faction.

Syria's rebels, and the Islam Army in particular, are also accused of human rights abuses in Syria, but rights watchdogs attribute the overwhelming portion of civilian causalities over the course of the six-year war to the actions of government forces and their allies.

___

Associated Press writers Bradley Klapper in Washington, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

SEE ALSO: The nerve toxin reportedly used on Kim Jong Un's half-brother takes only a single, oily drop to kill

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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said there is no "option except victory" in the country's civil war in an interview published on Thursday, saying the government could not reach "results" with opposition groups that attended recent peace talks.

The interview with Croatian newspaper Vecernji List appeared to have been conducted before U.S. President Donald Trump accused Assad of crossing "many, many lines" with a poison gas attack on Tuesday.

Assad was not asked about the chemical attack in the northwestern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun, a text of the interview published by the Syrian state news agency SANA showed. The government has strongly denied any role.

More than six years into the Syrian conflict, Assad appears militarily unassailable in the areas of western Syria where he has shored up his rule with decisive help from the Russian military and Iranian-backed militias from across the region.

The interview published on Thursday underlined Assad's confidence as he reiterated his goal of dealing a total defeat to the insurgency. He also reiterated his rejection of federalism sought by Kurdish groups in northern Syria.

"As I said a while ago, we have a great hope which is becoming greater; and this hope is built on confidence, for without confidence there wouldn’t be any hope. In any case, we do not have any other option except victory," he said.

"If we do not win this war, it means that Syria will be deleted from the map. We have no choice in facing this war, and that’s why we are confident, we are persistent and we are determined," he said.

More than 70 people, including at least 20 children, were killed in the chemical attack on Tuesday.

The Russian allies say the deaths were caused by a leak from an arms depot where rebels were making chemical weapons, after it was hit in a Syrian air strike. Rebels deny this.

Rebels have in recent weeks launched two of their boldest offensives in many months, attacking in Damascus and north of the government-held city of Hama. The army says both assaults have been repelled.

Assad, citing recent rebel offensives in Damascus and near the northern city of Hama, said "the opposition which exists is a jihadi opposition in the perverted sense of jihad".

"That is why we cannot, practically, reach any actual result with this part of the opposition (in talks). The evidence is that during the Astana negotiations they started their attack on the cities of Damascus and Hama and other parts of Syria, repeating the cycle of terrorism and the killing of innocents."

The Russian-backed Astana talks were launched with support from Turkey, a major backer of the opposition to Assad. They sponsored a ceasefire between the government and rebels which has been widely violated since it was declared in December.

A new round of indirect peace talks concluded in Geneva in late March without any major breakthrough towards ending the conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and created millions of refugees.

The Syrian government views all the groups fighting it as terrorists with agendas determined by foreign governments including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United States.

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Ankara (AFP) - Turkey said Thursday the autopsies of three Syrians killed in an attack in rebel-held northwestern Syria confirmed that chemical weapons had been used by President Bashar al-Assad's regime, state media reported.

"Autopsies were carried out on three of the bodies after they were brought from Idlib. The results of the autopsy confirms that chemical weapons were used," Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said, quoted by state-run Anadolu news agency. 

"This scientific investigation also confirms that Assad used chemical weapons," Bozdag added, without giving further details.

Thirty-two injured Syrians were brought to southern Turkey for medical treatment but three of them died in hospital.

At least 86 people were killed early on Tuesday in Khan Sheikhun and dozens more were being treated after they were found convulsing and foaming at the mouth.

Autopsies were conducted by officials from the World Health Organization in the southern province of Adana together with officials from Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Bozdag said.

The wounded had been brought from Idlib through Turkey's Cilvegozu border gate for the treatment in the Reyhanli district of Hatay province.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a vocal critic of Assad, called the Syrian president a "murderer" on Wednesday after denouncing the world's "silence" on the deaths.

Russia, Assad's main ally, has said a Syrian air strike had hit a "terrorist warehouse" but Erdogan has yet to make any reference to the Russian claim.

Moscow has been one of the regime's biggest supporters together with Iran while Turkey has given support to Syrian opposition fighters.

Recently Ankara said it "successfully completed" its military operation supporting Syrian rebels against the Islamic State group launched last August in northern Syria.

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BEIRUT, Lebanon — Western powers pushed ahead Thursday with efforts to take action over the suspected chemical attack in Syria after US President Donald Trump warned the "affront to humanity" would not go unanswered.

France said it was determined to pursue a UN Security Council resolution to investigate dozens of civilian deaths in a northwestern Syria town, which Turkey blamed Thursday on a "chemical attack" by the Damascus government.

President Bashar Assad's army has categorically denied that it used chemical weapons on Khan Sheikhun, and its ally Russia said "toxic substances" may have been released when Syrian troops struck a "terrorist warehouse."

At least 86 people were killed early Tuesday in the rebel-held town, and dozens more have received treatment for convulsions, breathing problems and foaming at the mouth.

An AFP correspondent in Khan Sheikhun on Wednesday said the town was reeling, with dead animals lying in the streets and residents still shell-shocked after watching their entire families die.

"Nineteen members of my family were killed," 28-year-old Abdulhamid said in the town, surrounded by mourning relatives.

"We put some masks on, but it didn't do anything ... People just started falling to the ground," said Abdulhamid, who lost his twin children and wife in the attack.

Ankara said autopsies of three people transferred to Turkish hospitals confirmed that chemical weapons had been used.

'Must not go unpunished'

"This scientific investigation also confirms that Assad used chemical weapons," Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told Turkish state media.

After an emergency session of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Western diplomats are expected to push for a vote as early as Thursday on a resolution demanding an investigation of the suspected attack.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the resolution, presented by Britain, France, and the US, remained a priority.

"These crimes must not go unpunished," Ayrault told CNEWS television.

"It's difficult because up to now every time we have presented a resolution, there has been a veto by Russia and sometimes by China ... but we must cooperate because we need to stop this massacre," he added.

If confirmed as an attack, it would be among the worst incidents of chemical weapons use in Syria's civil war, which has killed more than 320,000 people since it began in March 2011.

It has also prompted an about-face from Trump, who in 2013 urged then-President Barack Obama not to intervene against Assad after a major suspected chemical attack.

Senior US officials had also recently suggested it was no longer a priority that Assad be removed from power.

"I will tell you, it's already happened, that my attitude towards Syria and Assad has changed very much," Trump told reporters at a joint White House news conference with Jordan's King Abdullah.

"It crossed a lot of lines for me," he said, alluding to Obama's failure to enforce his own 2013 "red line" on the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Trump did not go into detail about what any US response would be, and he has previously opposed deeper US military involvement in Syria's civil war.

As she held up pictures of lifeless children at the UN on Wednesday, US Ambassador Nikki Haley warned of unilateral action if the UN failed "in its duty to act collectively."

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is due in Moscow next week, told reporters there was "no doubt" that Assad's government was responsible for the attack.

"And we think it is time for the Russians to really think carefully about their continuing support for the Assad regime."

'Gas so lethal'

The draft resolution backs an investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and demands Syria provide information on its operations.

Britain's ambassador to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, told reporters he hoped council members would agree on a draft resolution by Thursday but vowed to press for a vote regardless.

Failure to agree on a compromise text could prompt Russia to use its veto to block the draft resolution, which Moscow has done seven times to shield Syria.

Russia turned up at negotiations with a rival draft resolution that made no reference to specific demands that Damascus cooperate with an inquiry, diplomats said.

Syria officially relinquished its chemical arsenal and signed the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013 to avert military action after it was accused of an attack outside Damascus that killed hundreds.

But there have been repeated allegations of chemical weapons use since.

Doctors said victims showed symptoms consistent with the use of a nerve agent such as sarin — suspected to have been used by government forces in the 2013 attacks.

US officials have not said what kind of agent they think was used, but Trump said it was "a chemical gas that is so lethal, people were shocked to hear what gas it was."

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MOSCOW (AP) — The spokesman for President Vladimir Putin tells The Associated Press that Russia's support for Syrian President Bashar Assad is not unconditional.

Thursday's statement from Dmitry Peskov comes several days after a suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held province in Syria. Moscow, Assad's key backer, has supported the Syrian government militarily since 2015.

Turkey said on Thursday that autopsies of Syrian victims from this week's assault in the Idlib province, which happened 60 miles from the Turkish border, show they were subjected to chemical weapons.

The Syrian government maintains it didn't use chemical weapons and instead is blaming the rebels for stockpiling the chemicals. Russia's Defense Ministry says the toxic agents were released when a Syrian airstrike hit a rebel chemical weapons arsenal and munitions factory on the town's eastern outskirts.

SEE ALSO: The deadly chemical attack is the latest to hit Syria in 6 years of brutal civil war — here's what happened

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US President Donald Trump is reportedly considering military retaliation against Syrian President Bashar Assad after blaming him for a "heinous" chemical attack that killed at least 70 people, including at least a dozen children.

Unnamed sources told CNN that Trump spoke to members of Congress about a potential hit to Assad's forces, but that no decisions had been made yet.

"Yesterday's chemical attack, a chemical attack that was so horrific, in Syria, against innocent people, including women, small children, and even beautiful little babies, their deaths were an affront to humanity," Trump said on Wednesday in the White House's Rose Garden alongside King Abdullah II of Jordan.

However, military strikes against Assad have been considered several times throughout the six-year Syrian civil war. In December, President Barack Obama said the option of military strikes against Assad was not "easily available to us."

Not only are Russian service members in eastern Syria with Assad's forces, but Russia's advanced air defenses would make it a nightmare for the US to strike any of Assad's targets without putting US pilots in grave danger.

Igor Sutyagin of the Royal United Services Institute, who is an expert on US-Russia relations and air defenses, previously told Business Insider that even in the US's stealthiest plane — the F-22 — pilots and planners would have to be "operationally, tactically brilliant" to strike Assad's forces without losing American lives.

US Navy destroyers could sail to Syria's Mediterranean coast and fire a salvo of cruise missiles at Syrian targets without directly risking the lives of pilots — much like how Obama sent ships to fire on Libya in 2011 — but Russian defense systems could shoot those down, too.

However, Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain, members of the Senate Armed Service Committee, have called for a "punitive cost for this horrific attack" to be imposed on Assad via "an international coalition to ground Assad's air force." That likely would mean bombing the runways that Syrian and Russian forces use to launch airstrikes.

Jonathan Schanzer, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Business Insider that while "six years of policy paralysis" under Obama had given Russia and Syria the upper hand in the conflict, Trump still had options.

A covert military strike, short of a loud air campaign, could send a message to Assad that would keep military action out of the public eye.

A second option would be an overt military strike, where US planes would bomb Assad and hope to avoid Russia's advanced anti-aircraft batteries.

This option would directly risk the lives of US soldiers and has become less and less credible as Russia cements the Assad regime's power and its position in Syria.

"The Obama administration ceded Syria to the Russians," Schanzer said. "We did not put up a fight when the Russians stepped in."

In light of the dangers of an air war with top-of-the-line Russian defenses, Schanzer suggested another, less violent option: financial pressure.

"Additional sanctions against Iran and Syria and their enablers could include Hezbollah and any other actor that could be providing support for the Syrian slaughter," Schanzer said.

Trump has repeatedly talked tough on Russia, and the US's ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, has called on Russia and Iran to stop chemical warfare in Syria.

Though sanctions would not be an eye for an eye, as striking Assad's weapons and runways would be, Schanzer said they would be "easier to implement" with a "significantly lower cost than the deployment of forces or testing the anti-aircraft tech the Russians deployed."

SEE ALSO: If Trump wants to take military action against North Korea, he may have to do it this month

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Defense Department officials are developing plans for a potential military strike in response to a chemical weapons attack carried out by the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, according to multiple reports.

The New York Times and NBC News reported Thursday that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was planning to meet with President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to discuss military options against the Assad regime.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and military officers from the US Central Command have also been involved in the talks, according to the Times.

BuzzFeed News reported that possibilities for military action include striking the Syrian air force or specific military targets.

The chemical weapons attack in northwestern Syria on Tuesday killed dozens of people. US intelligence has established that a Syrian government aircraft carried out the attack, according to the Times, pointing to Assad regime culpability.

When reporters asked Trump on Thursday whether Assad should step down, he was somewhat noncommittal.

"I think what happened in Syria is a disgrace to humanity, and he's there, and I guess he's running things, so I guess something should happen," Trump said, according to a pool report.

Trump also called the attack "egregious" and said that such crimes "shouldn't be allowed to happen."

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also ramped up his rhetoric on Thursday.

He said that forcing Assad from power would require "an international community effort" and that "steps are underway" to make that happen.

Tillerson said the US is "considering an appropriate response for this chemical weapons attack" and that it's "a serious matter that requires a serious response." He also said there is "no role for Assad" in Syria's future.

The Assad regime was supposed to get rid of its chemical weapons under a deal brokered by Russia under the Obama administration. The deal followed President Barack Obama's 2012 "red line" in which he threatened military action if the Assad regime used chemical weapons. Once evidence surfaced of such an attack, Obama instead opted to cut a deal.

While the Assad regime has been known to use chlorine against civilians in recent years, Tuesday's attack, which carried evidence of use of the nerve agent sarin, was particularly egregious.

SEE ALSO: The Trump administration seems to be hinting at military intervention in Syria

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The White House is weighing strikes against the Syrian regime in response to a chemical weapons attack earlier this week that killed at least 70 civilians in Idlib province, which President Donald Trump said on Wednesday had changed his thinking about U.S. policy in the war-torn country.

But shifting the ongoing U.S. military effort in Syria to target the regime of Bashar al Assad and his forces, rather than the Islamic State, would be legally and operationally tricky. Syria’s air defenses are robust, and existing legal authorities to fight Islamist terrorists likely wouldn’t apply to a sovereign state like Syria.

Pentagon officials say Syrian aircraft were operating in the vicinity of the attack on Tuesday, but the Syrian government and their Russian allies deny any involvement. Soil samples have been sent to Turkey for examination, and international chemical weapons inspectors are investigating the incident.

Trump said Wednesday that the use of chemical weapons by Damascus, at least the fourth such strike in recent years, had “crossed a lot of lines.” Other administration officials, led by U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, took an even more strident tone. “When the United Nations consistently fails in its duty to act collectively, there are times in the life of states that we are compelled to take our own action,” she said Wednesday.

Speaking with reporters briefly in Florida Thursday, Trump wouldn’t expand on his plans, but said Assad is in power, “ando I guess he’s running things, so I guess something should happen.”

On Thursday, top GOP lawmakers also called for punitive strikes on Assad, who just days ago the Trump administration suggested would be left untroubled to finish wiping out rebel forces opposed to his rule.

Sens. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R.-S.C.) said in a statement Thursday that Assad “must pay a punitive cost for this horrific attack,” and the U.S.led coalition bombing Islamic State targets  should be repurposed to “ground Assad’s air force.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday voiced support for U.S. airstrikes against the regime of Assad, whom Turkey has long wanted to see ousted.

A senior Defense official told Foreign Policy that if ordered, U.S. forces in the region “would be prepared in short order to proceed” against a variety of targets, including chemical facilities and airfields. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is expected to brief Trump on potential targets in Syria over the coming days while Trump is in Florida meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping.

But shifting the U.S. effort away from battling terrorists and toward the regime would do more than mark an abrupt change in the U.S. approach to the Syrian conflict. It would raise a series of legal questions, threaten deadly clashes with Syrian and even Russian forces, and risks collateral damage on the ground.

The Pentagon has long had a list of Syrian weapons-research facilities the Assad regime kept from weapons inspectors in 2014 when the Obama administration celebrated the supposed dismantling of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles.

Military officials warn that before any attacks occur against either chemical plants or Syrian government sites, they’ll careful weigh potential side effects, including hitting sites that could spread dangerous chemicals to civilian areas.

There have been a series of cases in recent weeks where U.S. pilots have been accused of bombing civilian targets in Iraq and Syria. The largest was in Mosul, where over 100 people may have died in a building near an airstrike. Several investigations are ongoing.

Further, there are questions over what legal authorities would permit American strikes against the Syrian government. The 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force — which authorizes U.S. forces to attack the Taliban and al Qaeda — is already stretched dangerously thin to justify strikes against the Islamic State. It would not seem to authorize strikes against the Syrian government. Some Democratic lawmakers have warned Trump he would need congressional authorization to strike Syria.

Defense Dept. officials aren’t worried by the legal questions, though.“I don’t think there would be a problem with authorities,” the Defense official said, but said military commanders “need to be clear in every way what we want, both in statements and actions, before any actions were taken.”

Many in uniform are also concerned about Syria’s advanced, Russian-made air defenses, which one officer said “are substantial,” as well as the potential of even more advanced Russian air defenses in Western Syria locking on to American aircraft or cruise missiles.

Given the Russian military presence in Syria, the risk of hitting Russian troops is real.

The dangers of confusion on the battlefield are real. Last September, U.S. and coalition aircraft mistakenly bombed a Syrian army unit, killing dozens of soldiers.

“It would be up to the Russians to figure out if they would even acknowledge where their forces are” to the U.S. military, said Michael Kofner, a Russia analyst at the CNA Corporation.

Last fall, Russian military officials warned that their air defense systems would target any unidentified object that came with their range, even if they were U.S. aircraft or cruise missiles.

Under that scenario, Washington and Moscow could “end up in this very tense standoff in Syria,” Kofman said.
“The military reality is that this can get hairy at the operational level, very quickly.”

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On April 4, airstrikes pounded the small Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun, wounding hundreds and killing more than 80 people, including at least 20 women and 30 children.

Shortly after the attack, photos, videos, and written reports of the carnage began pouring onto the internet — and it quickly became clear to experts that something other than conventional weapons was used in the bombing.

Victims described running from toxic gases, with those who could not escape allegedly choking and foaming at the mouth. Footage taken after the attack showed infants shaking uncontrollably.

These and other pieces of evidence suggested at the use of chemical weapons, and on Thursday, anonymous US officials told the Associated Press that early "assessments showed the use of chlorine gas and traces of the nerve agent sarin in the attack".

Chlorine gas is a powerful irritant that can wreak havoc on the human body, but isn't known for being extremely lethal. A small amount of sarin gas, however, mirrors the effects of VX nerve agent— the world's most deadly poison.

Blame for the deadly and internationally condemned strikes has fallen on ruler Bashar Assad and his regime in Syria, while Russian officials have "fancifully" blamed a rebel chemical weapons stockpile for causing the massacre.

Here's what sarin gas is and what it does to the body, according to information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Reuters, and other sources.

Where the toxin comes from and what it is

Sarin is a nerve agent that:

• Was developed in Germany in 1938 as a pesticide.
• Is a human-made substance that's similar to insecticides called organophosphates, yet is far more powerful.
• Is clear, colorless, tasteless, and odorless in pure form, and dissolves easily in water.
• Rapidly evaporates into a dense gas that sinks to low-lying areas, and is the most volatile of all nerve agents.
• In a bomb, mixes two chemicals to weaponize the nerve agent.
• Can affect people through their skin, eyes, and lungs, and through contaminated food and clothes.
• Was used in attacks on Japan in 1994 and 1994.
• Was used by Bashar Assad's regime during an attack in Syria in 2013.

Why sarin gas is deadly

This Reuters illustration explains how sarin gas works on the body's nervous system:

What the symptoms of exposure are

Moderate exposure

• Head: confusion, drowsiness, and headache.
• Eyes: watery eyes, eye, pain, blurry vision, small/pinpoint pupils.
• Mouth, nose, and lungs: cough, drooling, runny nose, rapid breathing, chest tightness; victims have described breathing sarin gas as "a knife made of fire" tearing up their lungs.
• Skin: excessive sweating, muscle twitching at the site of contact.
• Digestion: nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, increased urination, diarrhea.
• Cardiovascular: abnormal blood pressure and heart rate, weakness.

Lethal exposure

• Convulsions
• Loss of consciousness
• Paralysis
• Breathing failure

How sarin nerve agent is treated

While there's an antidote, to be effective it must be used quickly — so the CDC recommends leaving the area where gas may be present and seeking fresh air. They also recommend getting to higher ground, since sarin gas sinks downward.

The CDC also says potential victims should:

• Rapidly remove clothing, tearing it off if necessary.
• To protect from further exposure, place the contaminated clothes in a bag, then seal within another bag, as soon as possible.
• Wash the entire body with excessive soap and water.
• Flush the eyes for 10-15 minutes if vision is blurred.
• If swallowed, don't induce vomiting or drink fluids.
• Seek medical attention immediately.

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Russian president Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Thursday that while Russia and Syria "enjoy a relationship of cooperation," Russia does not support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "unconditionally."

Peskov's comments came as President Donald Trump indicated he was prepared to retaliate against Assad for allegedly launching the worst chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians since 2013.

But experts are skeptical that Putin is really prepared to relinquish his support for an ally he has consistently defended throughout more than six years of brutal civil war. In late September 2015, Moscow went as far as to intervene in the conflict on Assad's behalf, waging a scorched-earth campaign on rebel-held enclaves — and ultimately winning back Syria's largest city, Aleppo — that remains ongoing.

"The Russians have previously declared that their support for Assad wasn't unconditional, but have nevertheless supported him unconditionally," Steven A. Cook, a senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said on Twitter. 

Some observers viewed Peskov's statement Thursday as a signal that Russia is willing to use its influence over Assad to negotiate some kind of deal with the US — a posture that struck some as eerily reminiscent of Russia's last-minute offer to dispose of Assad's chemical weapons stockpile in 2013 as the Obama administration threatened a military response to a gas attack that left more than 1,000 civilians dead.

"I think the Kremlin is dangling out this statement as a way to entice the West into another round of talks and push back the possibility of punitive strikes on the regime," said Boris Zilberman, a Russia expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

While the statement does not go quite as far as Russia's offer to Obama in 2013, preventing US military strikes against Assad is likely the Russians' "main goal right now," Zilberman said, so Moscow "would like to make it seem" as though there is room for negotiation. 

Ian Bremmer, president of the political risk firm Eurasia Group, agreed that it was "very unlikely" that Russia was ready to throw Assad under the bus.

"But [Peskov's] statement does put some pressure on Assad to both rein him in on his military activities" and push for "eventual diplomatic outcomes," Bremmer said. "Russia is one of two key external players here — Iran being the other — and it needs to assert itself with Assad, not just with the international community."

Most analysts who have been monitoring the conflict agree that deliberate US action is the only thing that can significantly stymie the Assad regime's momentum. After failing to follow through on its threat to strike Assad after he crossed Obama's now-infamous "red line" in 2013, the US lost credibility in the region and signaled to Russia and Iran that not even the worst chemical weapons attack in decades was enough to spur the US to attack Assad directly.

The US absence from the field, in other words, "left most of the shots available to the Kremlin," Gianni Riotta of the Council on Foreign Relations wrote late last year.

Trump, however, is more unpredictable. His slate of foreign-policy and military experience is blank, leaving Putin with little idea of what he is capable or willing to do. Indeed, Trump's sudden about-face on Wednesday — from advocating non-intervention in Syria to calling the attack "unacceptable" and indicating he would like to respond — left his own Cabinet reportedly bewildered.

"Pentagon officials were left confused after Trump appeared to signal a potential future policy change toward Syria," Buzzfeed's Nancy Yousseff reported on Wednesday.

Three defense officials told Yousseff that Assad may have used the chemical weapons to "test" how the US would respond — especially since, last week, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, suggested removing Assad from power was no longer a priority.

Faced once again with the threat of military action against one of his closest partners, Putin appears to be staging a test of his own. But, because Putin has never been known to bend to the US's will, it is unclear what will happen if Trump fails it.

Defense Department officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are already developing plans for a military strike, multiple outlets reported on Thursday. Tillerson confirmed that "steps are underway" to retaliate against Assad for the chemical weapons attack, which he said "requires a serious response."

Trump reiterated Thursday that "what happened in Syria is a disgrace to humanity," though his calls to action were a bit more subdued: Assad's "there, and I guess he's running things, so I guess something should happen."

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When news broke that President Donald Trump was preparing to launch cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield, some of the most prominent critics of the action weren't the center-leftists who've knocked almost every decision he's made since taking office.

Rather, it was Trump's most vocal and controversial online supporters themselves, the far-right mediasphere that rallied behind his candidacy.

While traditional conservative analysts and outlets applauded the decision to strike after Syria President Bashar Assad's chemical attack on his own people earlier this week, the reaction was radically different among supporters online.

Paul Joseph Watson, a vlogger at the conspiracy-peddling blog InfoWars, announced the end of his support for the president, vowing to support far-right French presidential candidate Marie Le Pen.

Banned from Twitter, ousted Breitbart provocateur Milo Yiannopoulous spent much of Thursday railing against Trump's decision on Facebook.

Right-wing pseudo-journalist Chuck Johnson took to Facebook to criticize American intervention in Syria.

"I will spend every minute of 2020 working to defeat Trump if we invade Syria," Johnson promised.

They were far from alone.

Ann Coulter declared that Trump was destroying his own presidency while Lauren Southern — a Canadian alt-right personality known for highly controversial stunts like faking a gender transition and confronting progressive protesters — live-streamed herself drinking wine and blasting "neo-cons" like senior adviser Jared Kushner and Sen. John McCain.

"We're going to war — isn't this fun, guys? Isn't this great?" she rhetorically asked. "I don't get this. Literally no one wants to do this."

Others floated conspiracy theories about the nature of the strike.

"New Right" personality Mike Cernovich urged his almost 250,000 Twitter followers to call the White House, demanding a stop to the strike, and floated a number of conspiracy theories.

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones also perpetuated the conspiratorial false-flag narrative, declaring that the strike could plunge the US into World War III.

Other figures appeared more unsure or telegraphed their disapproval.

Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft and Michael Flynn Jr., former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's outspoken son, both spent the evening retweeting posts disapproving of the strike. A source inside Breitbart told Business Insider that the far-right publication's staffers were split over the decision to strike.

The split between hawkish Trump supporters paraded on outlets like Fox News and antipathy to the strike online reflected the president's own flip-flops on interventionism during the campaign.

While he occasionally threatened to "bomb the s---" out of foes like ISIS, he proposed working with Russia and Assad to fight ISIS, and expressed suspicion about Syrian rebels.

"I don't like Assad at all, but Assad is killing ISIS," Trump said during the second presidential debate.

The split further harkened back to the pre-Trump roots of the alternate online conservative movement.

Many figures like Jones and white nationalist Richard Spencer expressed interest in Ron Paul's 2008 candidacy, partially citing his anti-interventionist ideology.

Some right-wing figures pleaded for unity among Trump supporters online.

In a live stream, Tim Treadstone, better known as the occasionallyanti-Semitic Twitter personality Baked Alaska, attempted to spin division between Trump supporters as a critique of "zombie" leftists.

"I personally am against the airstrikes and I think Trump made a bad decision, but we need to listen to each other right now and not go against each other," Treadstone said.

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Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday that U.S. cruise missile strikes on a Syrian airfield were one step away from clashing with the Russian military.

U.S. officials informed Russian forces ahead of the strikes — intended to punish the Syrian government for what they say was a chemical attack earlier this week — and avoided hitting Russian personnel.

Satellite imagery suggests the Shayrat air base that was struck is home to Russian special forces and military helicopters, part of the Kremlin's effort to help the Syrian government fight the Islamic State and other militant groups.

Medvedev, writing on social media, said the U.S. strikes were illegal and had been "one step away from military clashes with Russia."

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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley refused to hold a closed session on Friday about the U.S. missile strike against Syria, and instead forced a public session to shame countries who might defend Syria's chemical weapons attack.

"This morning, Bolivia requested an emergency UN Security Council meeting to discuss the events in Syria. It asked for the discussion to be held in closed session," Haley said in a statement.

"The United States, as president of the Council this month, decided the session would be held in the open. Any country that chooses to defend the atrocities of the Syrian regime will have to do so in full public view, for all the world to hear."

The meeting is scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m.

Haley made headlines earlier this week after making an impassioned speech about Syria President Bashar Assad's chemical weapons attack on his own people. She ripped Russia's support for Assad and showed pictures of the effects of the sarin gas that killed up to 100 people and injured hundreds more.

President Trump ordered 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired at a Syrian air base in the central part of the country Thursday in retaliation for the chemical weapons attack. The base is thought to be the place from where the chemical weapons attack originated.

U.S. officials don't believe the attack will cripple Assad's ability to do future attacks, but it was a signal sent to both Syria and the Russians that chemical weapons attacks are unacceptable.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid measured support for the U.S. cruise missile attack on a Syrian air base, some vocal Republicans and Democrats are reprimanding the White House for launching the strike without first getting congressional approval.

The politically diverse group ranges from the libertarian-leaning Kentucky GOP Rep. Tom Massie to Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat and Hillary Clinton's running mate in 2016. They've told Trump the U.S. Constitution gives Congress sole power to declare war and said the president needs to convince them that they should.

"While we all condemn the atrocities in Syria, the United States was not attacked," said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. "The president needs congressional authorization for military action as required by the Constitution, and I call on him to come to Congress for a proper debate. Our prior interventions in this region have done nothing to make us safer, and Syria will be no different."

Said Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, on MSNBC: "You have to come to Congress."

Yet that's far easier said than done at a time when Congress is deeply polarized and dysfunctional. Republicans control the House and Senate yet have been unable to agree on health care legislation, let alone a new war powers resolution. Barack Obama asked Congress two years ago to formally authorize war against the Islamic State. There were a few hearings and lawmakers argued, but they never acted on the proposal.

GOP leaders praised Trump's order to launch 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles Thursday evening, targeting the base from which Syrian President Bashar Assad launched a chemical weapons attack earlier this week against his own people. More than 80 men, women and children were killed.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he supported "both the action and objective." House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., called the strike "appropriate and just." Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina declared that Trump "confronted a pivotal moment in Syria and took action."

But Massie, who often breaks with his party, essentially called Trump a hypocrite for not getting permission from Congress. He retweeted late Thursday a 2013 tweet from Trump aimed at Obama, who at the time was considering taking military action in Syria.

"The president must get congressional approval before attacking Syria - big mistake if he does not!" Trump wrote then.

In his retweet , Massie used the hashtag "#bigmistake."

In a statement Friday, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., called Trump's order an "ill-thought out military action" that "exposes the immoral hypocrisy of this administration's policy in the Middle East."

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White House press secretary Sean Spicer tweeted a photo on Friday showing the moment President Donald Trump and his team huddled at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida to decide on firing dozens of missiles at a Syrian military air base.

The US launched the missiles as a response to a chemical attack allegedly carried out by the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad earlier this week that killed at least 80 people. 

The photo includes Trump's closest advisors and core members of his economic team. At the table (from left to right):

• Joe Hagin, Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations
• Jared Kushner, Senior Advisor
• Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary
• Wilbur Ross, Commerce Secretary
• President Donald Trump
• Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State
• H.R. McMaster, National Security Advisor
• Reince Priebus, Chief of Staff

On the periphery (left to right):

• Sean Spicer, Press Secretary
• A military aide
• Stephen Bannon, Chief Strategist
• Stephen Miller, Senior Advisor
• Michael Anton, Senior National Security Official
• Dina Powell, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy
• Gary Cohn, Chief Economic Advisor 

Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, were included via a secure VTC phone link. 

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The Pentagon released a map Thursday that reportedly shows the flight pattern of a Syrian aircraft that dropped chemical weapons on civilians Tuesday.

The map was released hours after President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military to fire 59 Tomahawk missiles at a northern Syrian airbase, in retaliation for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s attack.

"We have a very high level of confidence that the attacks were carried out by aircraft under the direction of the Bashar al-Assad regime, and we also have very high confidence that the attacks involved the use of sarin nerve gas," U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters Thursday.

National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster similarly told reporters "our intelligence community in cooperation with our friends and partners and allies around the world collaborated to determine with a very high degree of confidence precisely where the location originated. And then, of course, the sorts of chemicals that were used in the attack."

McMaster clarified that the strike will not cripple Assad’s ability to use chemical weapons and is instead is meant to send a deterrent message.

"The regime will maintain the certain capacity to commit mass murder with chemical weapons, we think, beyond this particular airfield. But it was aimed at this particular airfield for a reason, because we could trace this murderous attack back to that facility," he continued.

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NOW WATCH: 'No child of God should ever suffer such horror': Watch Trump’s full statement on the Syria missile strikes

MSNBC anchor Brian Williams set off a firestorm online after he called footage of missiles launching into Syria Thursday night "beautiful."

Williams made the comments while speaking with NBC terrorism analyst Malcolm Nance following the news that President Donald Trump ordered strikes at Syrian government targets. Those targets included the airfield where intelligence showed the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical weapons attack from days earlier.

"We see these beautiful pictures at night from the decks of these two US Navy vessels in the eastern Mediterranean," Williams said. "I am tempted to quote the great Leonard Cohen: 'I am guided by the beauty of our weapons.' And, they are beautiful pictures of fierce armaments making, what is for them, a brief flight over to this airfield. What did they hit?"

Williams received criticism on social media after his remarks, which were largely viewed there in a jingoistic light.

Watch the original comments below:

And the criticism that followed:

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