Assad allies vow to keep battling 'terrorism' in Syria

Beirut : The Russian and Iranian army chiefs vowed Saturday to keep battling "terrorists" in Syria, a day after a US missile onslaught on a Syrian airbase following a suspected chemical weapons attack.

General Valery Gerasimov and Major General Mohammad Bagheri spoke by phone and "condemned the American operation against a Syrian airbase which is an aggression against an independent country", Iran's state news agency IRNA said.

Russia and Iran are Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's closest allies, and label all opponents of his regime as "terrorists".

US warships in the Mediterranean launched a barrage of 59 cruise missiles at Shayrat airbase in Syria early on Friday, after 87 people including 31 children were killed in a suspected aerial chemical attack on rebel-held Khan Sheikhun.

It was Washington's first direct military action against Assad's government.

Another air strike on Saturday on the same town in the northwestern province of Idlib killed a woman, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

It said it was unclear if the latest strike was by Syrian or Russian warplanes.

The monitor also reported an air strike on Urum al-Joz, another Idlib town, on Saturday that killed 18 civilians including five children, which it said was believed to have been carried out by Russian aircraft.

Idlib province is controlled by a rebel alliance that includes a former Al-Qaeda affiliate, and is regularly targeted by both the Syrian government and its Russian ally.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Washington of "playing the terrorism game", during his first phone talks with his US counterpart Rex Tillerson since the US air strikes on Syria.