Britain says it fully supports U.S. strikes on Syria

Britain fully supports the U.S. military strike against a Syrian airfield from which a deadly chemical weapons attack was launched, a government spokesman said on Friday.

"The UK government fully supports the U.S. action which we believe was an appropriate response to the barbaric chemical weapons attack launched by the Syrian regime and is intended to deter further attacks," the spokesman said.

In a sharp escalation of the U.S. military role in Syria, two U.S. warships fired dozens of cruise missiles from the eastern Mediterranean Sea at the airbase controlled by President Bashar al-Assad's forces in response to the poison gas attack in a rebel-held area on Tuesday.