Syrian army vows US-led air strikes will not 'deter its battle'

Western air strikes on Syria will not diminish the army's resolve to press the fight against all remaining militants in the country, the military said in a televised statement on Saturday.

The United States, Britain and France struck Syrian military targets before dawn over a suspected gas attack last week, which Western powers blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies.

The army said nearly 110 missiles hit targets in the capital Damascus and other territory, and air defence systems brought most of them down.

"Such attacks will not deter our armed forces and allied forces from persisting to crush what is left of the armed terrorist groups," the military said.

Damascus with key allies Russia and Iran, have lambasted reports of the suspected gas attack as bogus. The Syrian government has accused Washington of seeking to use it as a pretext for attacking.

The foreign ministry said earlier on Saturday that the U.S.-led strikes would only "lead to inflaming tensions in the world" and threaten international security.

"The barbaric aggression ...will not affect in any way the determination and insistence of the Syrian people and their heroic armed forces," state media cited an official source in the ministry as saying.