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After US missile strikes, can Tillerson find common ground with Russia in Syria?

US strategy to defeat Islamic State in play as secretary of state heads to Moscow and UN secretary-general calls for restraint.

Battle damage assessment image of Shayrat Airfield, Syria, is seen in this DigitalGlobe satellite image, released by the Pentagon following U.S. Tomahawk Land Attack Missile strikes from Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, the USS Ross and USS Porter on April 7, 2017.     DigitalGlobe/Courtesy U.S. Department of Defense/Handout via REUTERS    ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. EDITORIAL USE ONLY.  MANDATORY CREDIT.  TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTX34MOP
Battle damage assessment image of Shayrat air base, Syria, is seen in this DigitalGlobe satellite image released by the Pentagon following US Tomahawk missile strikes from the guided-missile destroyers USS Ross and USS Porter on April 7, 2017. — DigitalGlobe/US Department of Defense/Reuters

The prospect of US-Russian cooperation to defeat the Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda in Syria, a top priority of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, may be on life support following US missile strikes on a Syrian air base April 7.

In a letter to US congressional leadership April 8, President Trump said the purpose of the missile strikes on Syria’s Shayrat air base was “to degrade the Syrian military's ability to conduct further chemical weapons attacks and to dissuade the Syrian regime from using or proliferating chemical weapons.”

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