Washington, April 8 (IANS): Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has chided President Donald Trump for firing 59 Tomahawk missiles on Syria as he attempts to bar refugees from entering the US.

Clinton on Friday urged the administration to "recognize that we cannot in one breath speak of protecting Syrian babies and in the next close America's doors to them".

It came as the US on Thursday night struck the Shairat airbase in a response to the chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians in Idlib province.

Clinton during her tenure as the Secretary of State under former President Barack Obama -- and during the presidential campaign -- advocated more aggressive action to deter Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, CBS News reported.

Hours before the strike, Clinton on Thursday said US should implement a no-fly zone.

"As I said yesterday (Thursday) it is essential that the world does more to deter Assad from committing future murderous atrocities," Clinton said at a luncheon in Houston.

"But the action taken last night needs to be followed by a broader strategy to end Syria's civil war and to eliminate the IS strongholds on both sides of the border so I hope this administration will move forward in a way that is both strategic and consistent with our values."

She said Trump's reasoning for the airstrikes conflicted with the ban on refugees from six Muslim-majority countries.

Trump has signed an executive order to temporarily ban immigrants from Syria, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya from entering the US, but a federal judge has blocked part of such order.

The Democrat did not name Trump but concluded that the strike serve as a reminder that "politics matter enormously".

She said Trump's reasoning for the airstrikes conflicted with the ban on refugees from six Muslim-majority countries.