President Donald Trump late Friday said he has approved military strikes in Syria in response to a suspected chemical-weapons attack by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime last weekend. "A short time ago I ordered the United States armed forces to launch precision strikes," Trump said in a statement on Friday. The strikes are believed to be in coordination with the U.K. and France, according to the Wall Street Journal. The strikes are intended to deter the Assad regime from using chemical weapons, which the government allegedly did last week in a suburb of Damascus. The order comes after Trump earlier in the week warned Syrian ally Russia to get ready for a military response in Syria. "To Iran and to Russia, I ask what kind of nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men women and children," Trump said in a televised statement. On Wednesday, Trump, via twitter, hinted that a military strike was imminent. Here's the video of Trump's address regarding the military response in Syria. The duration of the U.S. attacks is not clear, but the campaign is likely to last longer than attacks that the U.S. launched last April in reaction to similar suspected chemical attacks, Retired Colonel Jack Howard Jacobs told MSNBC in an interview Friday night.