♪ welcome back to al jazeera america. david shuster here at our headquarters in new york. you are looking at a live picture of the pentagon press briefing. they are going to come out and offer details on the air strikes last night in syria. the president talked about the arab countries that were involved. we're waiting for details about exactly what their contribution was last night. but in the meantime let's get the latest from randall pinkston who joins us live from the lawn

of the white house. what are some of the holes that the white house is waiting for the dod to fill, randall? >> they are doing the after-action estimate of the damage, as the general indicated earlier they would be doing. undoubtedly they are probably drones with look-down capability, trying to see in the targets were completely destroyed and probably identifying more targets to strike. we don't expect them to inform us of that, but expect that is what will be going on with our defense department and its coalition partners. we also expect some details about the nature of the targets that were struck today and the kind of equipment that was used to strike them. keep in mind that as far as we know for the most part if not totally, they were using manned

aircraft, not drones, and also tomahawk missiles, so we had a lot of manned aircraft, none of them shot down, indicating that the syrian air defense system was not used against the coalition forces in part because destroying isil also helps assad. and also talk assad was warned if we moved a muscle so to speak, his defense system would be taken out. >> at least there is some intermediary or perhaps directly, that notified the assad go that this does coming. and the group that was a target of the operations last night. i wonder if you can explain the significance of that. >> first about the notification to assads government in syria, a word of that came from the

syrian consulate in new york saying that he had been informed by the u.s. that there would be strikes. i spoke to one of al jazeera's military consultants, and he thinks it was not just a formality, trying to say we're goi going to come into your country and bomb parts of it, but also a tip-off to syria to take down their air defense system. and that is a question that perhaps will be raised today. be respect to the al jazeera affiliate, it is a group that took up residence inside syria. it was opposed by isil. isil was dismissed by al-qaeda to target westerners -- >> randall the pentagon briefing

is starting. let's listen. >> our strike was against two particular groups. the decision to conduct these strikes was made yesterday by the u.s. central command commander under authorization granted him by the commander in chief. our coalition partners in the fight against isil which included jordan, the united arab emirates, bahrain, and saudi arabia, with qatar in a supporting role continue to be a critical part of our strategy. secretary hagel appreciates their partnership, and in particular, lloyd austin who gave updates out there. we do not coordinate with the assad regime. we did inform the regime of our intent to take action, there was no coordination, and no military

to military communication. in terms of the coreson group which is a network of seasoned al-qaeda fighters these were to stop plots against the united states. the united states took action to protect our interest o to remove their capability to act. in a minute i'll turn it over to lieutenant general bill mayville to provide more detail, but before i do, i think it's important to note a few things. first, and while i'll get the general get into the details, our initial indication was that these strikes were very successful. second, while it's not our policy to discussion future operations, i can tell you that last night's strikes were only the beginning. there may be tactics,

techniques, and procedures that we won't be able to address here today, to preserve options that we may want available to us in the future. and finally, we'll leave it up to our partner nations to details the specifics of their involvement. and i'll also just note that secretary hagel is immensely proud of the u.s. personnel who participated in and supported these missions, and deeply appreciates their service and sacrifices. with that i'll turn it over to general mayville. >> good morning. last night at the direction of the president of the united states, u.s. military forces under thement command of united states central command in conjunction of partners in the region, executed a series of strikes in syria. coalition strikes targeted isil

training camps, headquarters, logistic call nodes, armored vehicles and leadership. the u.s. also executes unilateral precision strikes against the coreson group a terrorist organization located in northwest syria. intelligence reports indicated that the group was in the final stages of plans to execute major attacks on western targets, and particularly the u.s. homeland. the first wave began around midnight in syria or 8:30 eastern standard time. i'll draw your attention to the map. the first slide, please. in the first wave of the strikes. the ussa arly berke and the [ inaudible ] launched more than

40 tomahawk missiles. as you look at that slide, it's the target area around aleppo and [ inaudible ]. the second wave consisted of f22 raptors in their first combat role, f16s, b1 bombers and drones. they launched around 9:00 pm eastern standard time against targets in northern syria, targets includes isil headquarter, training camps, barracks, and combat vehicles. the final wave occurred shortly after midnight. f18s in the northern arabian gulf and regional bases attacked targets in eastern syria to include isil training camps and combat vehicles, principally in

that circle to the far east around darczar. coalition partners participated in both the second and third waves, supporting with a range of combat capabilities that began with combat air patrols to actual strikes on targets. the preponderance of coalition support was in the third wave. 96% of all of the deliver munitions were precision guided munitions. i would like to show you before and after photos that highlight the effects of these munitions. if i can go to the next slide. next slide, please. this is -- this first picture shows an isil finance center. it's a before and after. on the left is the before, and on the right as you look at it

is the after. it was engaged with tomahawk cruise missiles fired from the uss philippine sea. the intended target was the communications array on the roof. the tomahawk cruise missiles detonated as air bursts with effects focusing on the communications array. you can see the after picture, the roof top communications is heavily damaged, while the surrounding structure remains largely intact. if i can go to the next slide, please. this second picture shows an isil commander control building that was targeted by u.s. air force f22s during the second wave of strikes. this strike was the first time the f22 was used in a combat role. the flight of the f22s, delivered gps-guided precision

munitions, targeting again only the right side of the building. you can see the before shot and then you can see as you look at it on the right-hand side, the after shock. and you can see the commander control center where it was located in the building was destroyed. if i can go to the third slide. the third and final picture is a residence near the town of abbu kamal. and it's on the border between syria and iraq. this was a residential area that had been used for training and logistic site for isil fighters. it was engaged with multiple gps-guided missiled fired fre the uss george w. bush. and as you can see within the fence line of the residence,

there is a video here that shows exactly how that was done, so give me a moment to switch the video, and i'll let you look at that as well, of this same target nch again, you'll note the effects of the strike were continued within the boundaries of the target area. the strikes involved multiple aircraft and cruise missiles. it was through the careful planning and coordination that the central command combined air operations center located in the region that these strikes were successful, with minimal collateral damage. last night's strikes are the beginning of a consistent

campaign to degrade and ultimately destroy isil. our immediate plans are to degrade and destroy isil in syria and iraq. to assist in placing iraqi security forces and peshmerga forces on the offensive, to support the broader diplomatic efforts in the region, and to continue to work with iraqi security forces and ministries, and with that, we'll take your questions. >> reporter: general when you talked about the mission continuing you did not mention the coreson group. can we expect more against the coreson group? and do you have any [ inaudible ] damage assessment against them? do you believe it's possible you killed their leader? do you have any sense of what

you accomplishes that you are able to give us? >> as i'm sure you probably know, we're still assessing the effects of our strikes, but we have been watching this group closely for sometime. we believe they were nearing an execution phase of an attack either in europe or the homeland. we know the coreson group has attempted to recruit operatives. they clearly are not focused on either the assad regime or the syrian people. they are establishing routes in syria in order to advance attacks against the west and the homeland. >> do you have any sense of what you did accomplish in those strikes? >> it would be premature to comment on that. >> reporter: is it going to take you a year general to train the free syrian army, are you going to put ground forces or need

ground forces in syria between now and then, and if not, how is this any different from 12 years of war from iraq and afghanistan, why is this any different from whack-a-mole? >> the short answer is no, we will not put and have not put ground forces in this area. the training program as you said we're in the beginning stages of. it is a necessary component of the overall strategy, but it is not sufficient. i think we are appropriate sized for the task that we have been given. >> reporter: general, were any leadership targets included on last night's hit list, and -- and -- and what results did you get in were any leadership -- isis leadership taken out? >> no, we did not target individual leaders. we did, however, target command

and control nodes. we examined those targets for patterns of life, and if they were there, that was an indication of a command and control node. >> you talked about a sustainable campaign. what does sustainable mean? how long can the american people expect these air strikes continue? and what shape will they take? can you look forward for us? >> what you saw today and last night were a disruption and a -- to isil forces that were enables their strikes into iraq. and the way i would encourage you to look at this, is look at what we're trying to do regionally. we are focused first in iraq, because we have a partner in iraq to work with, but we are striking through the depths of isil's formations, because we

are trying to disrupt their support bases while we enable in iraq their iraqi security forces with the help of partners to dislodge and ultimately remove isil from iraq. >> reporter: could this take years? >> i would think of it in terms of years, yes. >> reporter: with regard to the coreson group, you said they were an imnext threat to the u.s. and europe. is your sense that the threat has been contained or they have sent operatives outside of syria. >> i would want to walk away from that and not talk about ill -- intel matters. let us -- give us some time to assess the targets and the

effects we thought we had last night before we cans than. >> reporter: you talk about these strikes as hopefully having an effect on iraq. i wonder if you could assess a little bit -- obviously the iraq end of this campaign has been going on for a while. do you think you have had an effect so far with those strikes? and what more is hoped for from this wave? >> the most important thing is to create some space for the iraqi security forces to reorganize, and -- and replace leadership that has -- that needs to be replaced, to allow them to reorganize their equipment, and rearm, to get their ministry connected to this newly formed government, and to allow them to get on the offensive. what we have been doing over these past couple of weeks, and what last night's campaign was

about was simply buying them some space so they can get on the offensive. >> reporter: general you talked about the overall plan allowing the iraqi and peshmerga go on the offensive. won't these strikes benefit assad? won't that allow him to go on the offensive? this benefits him, doesn't it? >> well, right now the task at hand is countering isil. that's job one. and as you mentioned last night, we were not only doing strikes in syria, we did several strikes in support of peshmerga forces in iraq, but the principle purpose now is countering the threat of isil first of iraq and then the region. >> reporter: but it is benefiting assad, isn't it? this >> i would say it is certainly causing isil to address the fact that there is now an air war

against them. >> reporter: we have heard a lot about assad's air defense system being very robust, were any of your aircraft painted with radar coming in? >> yeah, the target radar acquisition on the part of syria, i would characterize as passive. >> reporter: turned it off or what? >> i won't get into specifically what we know they did. but i think it's fair to assess as pass if radar. >> reporter: can you talk about the decision to use the f35? >> well, what we were looking at was the effects we wanted to see on the target areas, and what platforms in the region would be best suited to do that. we had a large menu of targets to strike from, and we chose from there. so you just -- really it's less the platform than the effects we seek and what platforms can deliver those effects. that's really the job of the

k-op. >> reporter: general can you give us a sense of what percentage of munitions were dropped by arab allies? >> yeah, let me let the host nations of those partner nations that provided capabilities last night to speak to their level of effort. >> reporter: general, was -- could you talk to what level of coordination there was with the moderate opposition, and whether there's been any movement on the ground either on the part of the opposition forces to capitalize on these strikes or in the case of the syrian government forces. >> the reach to moderate oppositions is rightly so in the hands of the civilian instruments of our national capability, so i'll deflect that and let our state department colleagues address that.

>> reporter: have you seen isis take any actions post strike? >> yeah, look, isis is -- is a very well-organized, and -- and very well resourced force that is an adaptive and learning force. it's too early to characterize precisely what isil has done in result of last night's attacks. but they are -- they are very well funded. they are a learning organization. and they will adapt to what we -- what we have done and -- and seek to address their shortfalls and gaps in the coming weeks. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] for striking the financial center, specifically its electronics.

>> so look at us bases of support as well as command and control. we gained an understanding of what that target meant to them, and deciding striking at it would have a disruptive effect. >> will centcom now have [ inaudible ] or is hagel still in command? >> both the secretary of defense and the president are in the chain of command and will remain in the chain of command. as far as what targets and future operations i would not like to comment, other than you are seeing the beginning of a sustained campaign, and strikes like this in the future can be expected. >> reporter: can we expect it rather quickly, though.

>> the operational pace will be dictated by the facts on the ground. it would be difficult for me today to kind of lay out some sort of lock step process. it's driven by the opportunities that we -- we see. >> reporter: but general austin has the authority he needs to continue to conduct strikes [ inaudible ]. >> yeah. >> reporter: general there have been consistent reports that isil is already dispersing its fighters to mix with the population and hide. isn't that going to require something like j-tax, maybe are you going to train the free syrians in this? >> your point about isil adapting to the air strikes is a good one, and we have seen

evidence that they are already doing that. we have seen that as a result of the air campaign thus far in iraq. there are other ways to deliver precise munitions than putting a jtax forward. it obviously is something that we prefer to do when collateral damage or concerns about precision in a closed environment, in an urban environment, when there's a convergence of fore -- forces is in play, there's obviously a desire to put something on the ground. but we don't always have to strike with jtax forward. we have been doing this very successfully thus far in places -- not only the rural places like we saw in mount sinjar, and as we went to support the iraq forces, but

also in a relatively built up area. and i think we will continue to look at how we can do that as we move forward. [ inaudible ] >> reporter: general just to ask an earlier question a different way, what percentage of the total munitions were dropped by u.s. forces? >> yeah. the preponderance of the force was -- came from u.s. platforms, so -- >> reporter: [ inaudible ]? >> i quite honestly will have to get into the numbers and actually count the types of munitions. it's a little bit misleading because we used a different type of munitions. so we might have a very precise munition that can service an effect with only one rocket, one missile, and others may have to service it a couple of times to

get the effects we see -- >> reporter: the vast majority were carried out by american air forces. >> reporter: the math bares that out, that's right. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] of the [ inaudible ] similar to what happened to the agenzidis. [ inaudible ] helping these syrian kurds? >> we haven't ruled out anything, other than what it is going to take to counter isil through the depths of the -- both iraq and syria. right now, the way our partnership, our coalition air campaign is working is we have got the ability to find and to fix and finish, if you will, let me use some military jargon there, with the assets we have.

those assets by the way, include partners in the region. >> you have been very patient, you get the last question. >> reporter: the syrian and other rights groups have already claimed that syrian citizens have been killed, and they are claiming they were american strikes. do we have confirmation that civilians have been killed? is there a way to get that tally? and how do you differentiate if the united states of other nations caused those deaths. >> reporter: we are unaware of any civilian casualties. but obviously limiting civilian casualties is of utmost importance. >> lieutenant general mayville, and there was some news that came out of this briefing. the spokesmen described the air strikes in three waves. the first a series of tomahawk

cruz -- cruise missiles that were fired at app al-qaeda group. and they said they were in the final stages of plan to conduct major attacks on europe and possibly the u.s. homeland. so at least u.s. intelligence was increasingly concerned about a potential threat from coreson groups, so as part of the operation against isil it was against isil and coreson groups in northwest syria. the second stage involved a variety of u.s. and coalition aircraft. and then there was a third stage involving targets in eastern syria. in addition to the tempo and the pace, and the pentagon confirming that a preponderance

of the munitions came from the u.s. and the most advanced fighter bomber that has ever been constructed finally did see combat last night. the f22 cost $67 billion to build. there are 188 planes that had been built. the pentagon had been reluctant to use it in the past, but it has a significant ability to avoid detection from surface to air missiles. so the decision was made to use the f22 for the first time. it can fly higher and faster than any other bombers in the u.s. arsenal. there are reports that this particular fighter bomber can drop a precision-guided bomb 15 miles away