UPDATE - Manama, Riyadh, Tel Aviv praise US strike on Syria base

*UPDATES WITH BAHRAINI REACTION

ANKARA (AA) - Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Israel have all issued statements praising Friday’s U.S. airstrike on a regime air base in Syria’s western Homs province.

Saudi Arabia announced its "full support for the U.S. military operations against military targets in Syria," according to a statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency.

"We hail the courageous decision of U.S. President Donald Trump, which represents a response to the crimes of this [Assad] regime against his people in light of the failure of the international community to stop him," the news agency quoted a Saudi Foreign Ministry source as saying.

“These operations came in response to the Syrian regime's use of chemical weapons against innocent civilians, which claimed the lives of dozens, including children and women,” the source added.

The Bahraini Foreign Ministry, for its part, said in a statement: "We praise the clear American position in its support of efforts to end the Syrian crisis.”

It added: “We stress the need to uphold the interests of the brotherly Syrian people and to work in all seriousness and transparency to end their suffering."

"We also commend the speech of U.S. President Donald Trump, which reflects his determination and desire to eliminate terrorism in all its forms," the ministry asserted.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said on Wednesday that "something should happen" to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad after a Tuesday chemical attack in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province that left more than 100 people -- mostly civilians -- dead.

Trump had declined to elaborate, however, what that “something” should be.

The Syrian regime, for its part, has denied that it carried out Tuesday’s deadly chemical attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also hailed Friday’s U.S. missile strike on Syria’s Shayrat Air Base.

"In words and actions, President Trump sent a strong and clear response: the use of chemical weapons is unacceptable," Netanyahu said in a statement.

"Israel fully and unequivocally supports the president’s decision and hopes the clear message will reverberate not only in Damascus but also in Tehran, Pyongyang and elsewhere," he added.

The U.S. fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian military air base that American officials believe had been used to carry out Tuesday’s deadly chemical attack, according to the Pentagon.

The missiles were fired from two U.S. destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean. They struck the air base at approximately 3:45 a.m. local Syrian time Friday (0045GMT).

Aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage units, ammunition supply bunkers, air-defense systems and radars were targeted in the strike, the Pentagon said.