If Russia targets allied launch platforms 'that's war'

Retired Gen, Sir Richard Barrons, who led the UK's Joint Forces Command from 2013 to 2016, has hit back at a suggestion from Russia’s ambassador to Lebanon that any US missiles fired at Syria would be shot down.

Barrons, whose role included advising on strategy on Syria as one of the chiefs of staff, said on the Today programme that if Russia target US "launch platforms" to "sink ships, sink submarines and shoot aircraft out of the sky, that's war".