Cairo: Hours before the dozens of US air strikes in Syria in response to a chemical attack that killed more than 80 Syrians, Abdul Hamid al-Youssef was mourning the loss of his twin babies, his wife and up to 40 members of his family.

"They were beautiful babies, my little blond kids," he told Fairfax Media over the phone briefly from the town of Khan Sheikhoun, holding back tears and mumbling his answers.

Photos of the 28-year-old father widely circulated on social media this week, showing him clutching his poisoned toddlers clad in white garb.

"Bashar al-Assad has to stop killing civilians and children. For six years, the world couldn't stop him?" he pleaded. "40 martyrs from one family!"

In the first direct hit on Syria, US warships in the eastern Mediterranean fired 59 cruise missiles onto the Shayrat airbase, believed to be the storage that the Syrian army used to fire chemical weapons two days earlier. Up to six soldiers were reportedly killed.

"We might be happy, but it is not enough," Abdul Aziz al-Youssef, 27, who is Abdul Hamid's cousin, told Fairfax Media.

"If the Syrian regime loses one plane at least then that's win for the people. It would be one less plane that would kill me, my son or my family."

He was ambivalent about whether this direct strike would deter Assad from further retaliation in rebel held areas such as Idlib, where the Youssef family is based.

"This airbase does not mean a whole [lot] to us as much as it is imperative to get rid of the dictator," he said.

Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian leader who has withstood his country's uprising since March 2011 and plunged into a grinding conflict, remains in power due largely to Russian and Iranian military support. Entering its seventh year, the Syrian conflict has seen the loss of more than 200,000 lives and more than 5 million refugees fleeing the war.

The airstrikes mark the first direct assault on Assad by the United States since the start of the conflict, which has served as a proxy war for various international actors including Turkey, Qatar, Iran and Russia.

There are fears that the military escalation could exacerbate damaged relations between Russia and the US. Russian President Vladimir Putin viewed the attack as "aggression against a sovereign nation" and Iran also condemned it.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was supportive of the Trump administration's targeted military action deeming it "proportionate ??? and swift".

The Syrian government labelled the US a partner of militant groups such as Islamic State and al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra in response to the strike in a statement released on Friday. It further denied responsibility for the chemical attacks days earlier.

"We are used to it every time. The regime loses some ground and subsequently it takes it out on civilians. We are expecting more of this in the coming days. There's already a massacre just this morning hours after America's strikes," Abdul Aziz explained.

He lamented that he had heard reports of Russian retaliatory strikes on the nearby district of Heesh in Idlib, with suggestions of up to nine dead.

"The regime is still there with its airbases, weapons, tanks and sarin gas. It is a lesson for Assad though at this point," he added.

Rifaat al-Youssef, 27, a construction engineer who is also Abdel Hamid's cousin and in Khan Shikhoun, was more skeptical of Trump's missiles.

"They are not useful. It is [like an] anesthetic for now that detracts away from the larger crimes of Assad and Russia," he said.

"If his planes are still in the sky and can still kill us, then this is all just in vain and a lie."

He told Fairfax Media how he recovered the bodies of relatives strewn across the site of the chemical attack earlier in the week.

"It was horribly unbelievable picking up 13 relatives of mine in my own hands - the youngest being a two-month old baby. We saw dead people everywhere. Others foaming at the mouth and losing conscience," he said.

Abdel Hamid, who is still in shock over the deaths of his toddlers and wife, said he is not deterred to leave his home. "This is my land, my country, I will never leave."

When the chemical weapons struck the asphalt, he ran to transport those affected to field hospitals on the outskirts of Kahn Sheikhoun and when he returned, the sarin gas had seeped through a shelter where his wife and children were hiding in.

Unable to sleep from the effects of the sarin gas, as well as the psychological distress of burying his nine-month-old twin toddlers and their mother, Abdel Hamid's nights have been marred by nightmares.

"I wake up sobbing. Dalal, my wife, I used to call her Daldoul, she was my darling and everything," he said. "These beautiful souls are with God now - they are waiting for me."

With worries that the conflict might draw the US into a role reminiscent of its occupation in Iraq in March 2003, the Youssef family is more concerned with mourning their lost loved ones and rebuilding their lives.

"What's the use? In the end, revenge attacks will target civilians and kill them," Abdel Aziz said.