*Moscow IRNA – A senior Russian military official has said that Syrian airdefense had intercepted at least 71 cruise missiles fired by US, UK andFrance at Syria early Saturday.*

At a news conference in Moscow on Saturday, Lt. Gen. Sergey Rudskoy said atleast 103 cruise missiles, including Tomahawks, were fired at a number oftargets in Syria, Aljaeera reported.

‘Russia has fully restored the air defense system of Syria, and itcontinues to improve it over the last six months,’ Rudskoy said.

The Russian defense ministry was quoted as saying that Syria deployedRussian-made surface-to-air missiles, including S-125, S-200, 2K12 Kub andBuk to repel the attacks.

Among those targeted by the US-led operation was the Al-Dumayr militaryairport outside of Damascus. Russia said all 12 missiles directed at theairport were intercepted.

In his statement, Rudskoy confirmed at least one US Navy warship in theMediterranean, and US B-1 bombers were involved in the operation, as wellas UK’s Tornado fighter.

The US-led strikes on Saturday come after a suspected chemical weaponsattack on the former rebel stronghold of Douma last week.

Assad’s government and its ally Russia have called the alleged chemicalattacks as fabrications.