International

President Trump and his advisers on Tuesday weighed a more robust retaliatory strike against Syria than last year’s missile attack, reasoning that only an escalation of force would look credible and possibly serve as a deterrent against further use of chemical weapons on Syrian civilians.

A pair of Navy warships in the eastern Mediterranean Sea were capable of launching the same sort of missile barrage that Mr. Trump ordered against a Syrian air base a year ago in response to a chemical attack then that killed more than 80 civilians.

But White House and national security officials worried that an operation of the same scale, as punishment for another suspected and deadly attack that killed dozens over the weekend, would not be effective at curbing the Syrian military’s war effort.

Administration officials said they expected any new strike to be more expansive than last year’s, but the question was how much more. Possible options included hitting more than a single target and extending strikes beyond a single day.