WASHINGTON — The ranking Senate Foreign Relations Committee Republican is urging a “surgical” U.S. airstrike against Syria in reprisal for Bashar Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons.

Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee tells NBC’s “Today” show that “I do think action is going to occur” militarily in response to the purported chemical weapons use last week in a Damascus suburb.

Corker says the Obama administration “feels like there’s no question chemicals were used” and says it is seeking to rally its NATO allies to support a military response.

He adds, quote, “I think it should be surgical, it should be proportional. It should be responsive to what happened on the ground.”

The comments followed actions today in Syria, where snipers opened fire at a U.N. vehicle carrying a team investigating the alleged use of chemical weapons in Damascus, a U.N. spokesman said. The Syrian government accused the rebels of firing at the team, while a rebel representative said a pro-government militia was behind the attack.

Activists said the team later arrived in Moadamiyeh, a western suburb of the capital and one of the areas where last week’s attack allegedly occurred. They said the team was meeting with doctors and victims at a makeshift hospital.

The United States has said that there is little doubt that President Bashar Assad’s regime was responsible for the attack on Aug. 21 in the capital’s suburbs. Activists say the action killed hundreds; the group Doctors Without Borders put the death toll at 355 people.

Today’s shooting came as support for an international military response was mounting if it is confirmed that Assad’s troops used chemical weapons.

Martin Nesirky, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said the U.N. vehicle was “deliberately shot at multiple times.”