store today on pete muntean at reagan national airport. >> this is cnn cnn breaking

news we are back with our breaking news coverage. iran launching a barrage of missiles into israel and anderson cooper alongside my colleague wolf blitzer, moments ago, white house national security adviser jake sullivan said nearly 200 ballistic missiles were fired from iran. he characterized the attack as a significant escalation as were his it's words. our cameras captured the moment when some of the missiles were intercepted over tel aviv this afternoon. >> it was a very scary moment indeed, and we're getting our first look, anderson, right now at some of the damage video posted on social media shows an object crashing down just north of tel aviv another video shows the aftermath inside a restaurant in the area. you can see broken glass and scattered debris. or ron says this attack was in response for the killing of the hezbollah leader hassan nasrallah and other assassinations. the israeli military is vowing that iran's attack, quote we'll have consequences. their words will have consequences. here's the

moment our colleague and friend jim sciutto and his team saw the iranian missiles entering tel aviv's airspace earlier today, watch this this is a sun summarizing major. >> i think my heart jim sciutto, this is obviously a major attack. there's no question you are seeing what we're all saying. >> with our own eyes is a major attack from iran. >> it's a major attack. dana and it's an escalation. it's an escalation of this war beyond what we saw, i think potentially beyond what we saw on april when it when iran launched dozens of missiles and drones this attack according to us intelligence principally, or perhaps entirely ballistic missiles, which are the fastest by far. and the most dangerous and now what we're seeing in addition to those intercepts as we're seeing fragments falling to the ground, it's like, yeah, a deadly a deadly fireworks

display over tel aviv. >> goodness, there was an impassioned gave us here and you're talking about tel aviv, jim, we are looking at pictures right now. we are looking picture at pictures of tel aviv. what you're describing oh god. >> okay. guys, we got to get off the roof. these are coming down right next to us here. >> please do, jim please do they're coming down one just about. we got to go inside jim, please take cover listening and we are watching

so that was the scene about more than two hours ago or the chicken with jim sciutto, who's on the rooftop. there is the strikes began, obviously things now a calm in tel aviv. there was also a terror attack earlier in jaffa but just talk a little bit about what is going on right now in terms of what israeli government officials are doing and considering meeting shortly. the israeli prime minister his defense minister, intelligence officials to decide israel's response and we've already heard public commentary, for instance, from admiral hagari, spokesperson for the idf vowing what he described a serious consequences for this attack the question is what those serious consequences are? how far it seems quite clear that israel is going to respond to the question is, how far do

they respond? and what targets and to what degree? because we are locked in a cycle of attack and retaliation. retaliation, attack and retaliation that we've been in for some time. i think you could connect the events tonight to what we saw just yesterday and overnight was israeli boots on the ground in southern lebanon. and then to the israeli strike that killed nasrallah several days before that were locked in a cycle here. and the question is, does that cycle get worse? and i think that's why it was interesting to hear jake sullivan and anthony blinken both emphasized at the top of their comments, just before the end of the last hour that this was an ineffective attack, that it was successfully defeated by israel. and i wonder if that could be part of a broader message from the u.s. to israel, whether it takes they're not to while it has every right to respond, to attempt to temper that response, so it doesn't escalate further. just one more thing i would add because you

anderson, you and wolf know this as well as i do in the midst of that fire, there my colleagues here were the ones with me getting this on the air contour ago, who's here? david hawley, florence davy attlee producing ahmed's iran stewart scanlan, keeping our signal up in the sky. zena saifi producing as well. and hannah barely there were a group of us here on the roof throughout those events. and without that group, but we couldn't got those images on the air jim, there's a state department briefing, i believe going on right now. >> so let's let's go to that israel, let alone an american citizen casualty. there is one report of a palestinian who died in the west bank but no, no, no damage to any us facility either and then what with you and the national security advisor just a few minutes ago, you talked about this being a brazen and unacceptable escalation but does the administration see anything that israel has done

over the course of the last three weeks as escalatory. so certainly they have done things to ics to expand the conflict. but if you look at the actions that they have taken, they were bringing terrorists to justice. terrorists who have launched attacks on israeli civilians if you look at what iran did today, we have been warning for some time about the threat posed by iran arming and funding terrorist groups across the middle east and the attack today just demonstrated the danger of those actions. what you saw was iran launching a state on-state attack to protect and defend the terrorist groups that it has built, nurtured, and that it controls so there is a difference between the actions that we have seen israel takes to defend its civilians and what i just said they are equivalent, i just wanted to make sure that you didn't see. >> we have certainly seen iran are we certain thing israel expand the nature of its attacks against hezbollah, but

it's a very a very different type of attack than what we saw today from a state. a state actor against another state okay. >> last one. and this has to do with lebanon and northern front the situation there is unstable and uncertain. i know that you guys have been asking americans who might want information about assistance and possibly leaving to sign up on a on a forum. can you give us an update on the numbers of those and whether or not you're planning to i don't know, to do anything in the way of either us government capabilities or charter flight fairies, sir. >> so you're right, as we often do in these situations, we have directed us citizens since you are in lebanon to register with the state department for information and especially for information with how to depart

lebanon. and we're providing them whatever information we can we have had as of today, around 6,000 american citizens it's in lebonon who have registered with us for further information should be clear. not all of those american citizens are seeking assistance with departing people are just looking for information they're looking for options there are a number of american citizens who live in lebanon who have lived there for years and do not want to depart the country so in terms of the status on the ground, the airport is still open commercial flights are operating, although they are available at times it reduced us capacity. we are working right now with airlines to provide additional flights with more seats for american citizens. it's something that we hope to turn on in the next few days, and we will be in touch with american cities dozens. if and when we are able to expand that capability, how do you, how do you make how do you ensure that they're going to be seats reserved for americans that were working with i can't get into details. we're working with commercial

carriers to ensure that capability. and when we have further information and we've locked this down, it's something will communicate directly with american citizens who have asked for information. and then i'll be happy to come and talk talk about it here at the briefing room so given that the secretary and the national security advisor just said that this attack by iran is sort of definitive escalatory and nature. >> i know that state you've been telling us the secretary even told us that for months, you've been encouraging the israelis not to respond to attacks and provocations in such a way that escalates anything further is the secretary going to continue to so offer that same advice to the israelis now in the wake of these missile strikes, i'll say a couple of things about that. first, of course, israel has the right to defend itself as any nation does in terms of what israel's response will be. of course, there must be consequences for iran for this attack. we've made clear that there must be consequences.

i'm not going to get into what those consequences are today. but there are things on which we will be coordinating with our israeli counterparts. and i think in the immediate aftermath of this attack we're going to coordinate with them on what any response might be i think it's important that we are able to defeat this attack through successful work with israel and with our partners. and we will work with them on what a response might look like. but i'm not at the position just two-and-a-half hours after this event occurred to offer what that might look like today araneus and foreign ministry continue to monitor the state roofing. >> i want to go to the pentagon briefing that's underway right now. the pentagon spokesman, general patrick ryder, is briefing reporters and just set the scene. the us has now deployed three guided missile destroyers in the eastern mediterranean to assist israel potentially in the aftermath of this strike. but let's listen to this briefing what's being communicated between secretary

austin and minister gallant right now in terms of tampering things down and potentially avoiding a wider war so that the two navy destroyers involved, or the uss bulkeley and the uss cole in terms of the conversations between secretary austin and minister gallant, i won't get into the private discussions other than to say we are consulting closely with them on next steps and the continued defense of israel and then are there any plans underway to conduct a neo given the increase risk of a wider war? >> right now, there has been no order to evacuate. as you've heard us say before, we are a planning organization, so we of course plan for all contingencies but as of right now, state department has not called for an evacuation. jennifer should we assume that the sm threes were used by the colon double-click it says shut down, or to intercept the missiles i'm not going to get

into the specific type of ordinance. jennifer, other than to say again, they fired a dozen interceptors and iran said that they gave a heads-up to the us into russia how much warning were you given by iran? >> yeah, i'm not aware of any pre-warning by iran about their potential attack, as you know, this is something we've been following very closely for a while. based on the threats of retaliation by iran. and so we've been closely consulting with israel for a while now to be prepared in the eventuality. and as today demonstrated, we were prepared and we were able to successfully work alongside israel to defend them from this attack. me go to carla thanks, pat. you said that the destroyer shot down iranian missiles where do they come from? >> where they all it from inside iran or with some also from yemen being shot by the houthis karla to my knowledge, and again, we're still

assessing this. >> these were all launched from iran, ballistic missiles. and what i said was that they fired the interceptors to towards those missiles remember any other us assets involved in this defense? of course, we have a lot of capability in the region, a lot of things that are there to be prepared for a wide variety of threats. but in terms of the launching of these intercept interceptors, it was those two districts so just being cleared, know ground-based interceptors were used in this for the any were you aware of any duds that didn't fire off that maybe around wanted to fire more than the roughly 200. >> as i mentioned, we're still assessing the outcome of the attack, and so we'll have much more information later, but these are all our initial reports and then on the second call with the secretary and minister, the line and he urged israel not to respond or to moderate any response to iran or did israel share big launch, hear any of israeli intentions

for their potential response here? >> well, again, as i'm sure you can appreciate, i'm just not going to be able to get into the details of their call other than to say again, we're consulting closely about next steps. and the continued defense of israel. >> what is, what is secretary austin think about the potential for an israeli response here? does he would he urge them without saying what he said in the call necessarily, but what are his feelings about the potential when he urged them restraint or well, look, if you take a step back here, we fully support israel's right to defend itself. you just saw a very significant ballistic missile attack by iran against israel drill and so we'll continue to work alongside them to support their defense. we of course, do not want to see a wider regional conflict. you've heard us say that many times and will continue to work towards that end. but we also fully understand the fact that this was a significant attack by iran so. we're going to

continue to consult closely and we're going to continue to support their defense. let me go to laura. >> you just a couple of clarification that day, us destroyers had intercepted or shot down. the missiles are just that they fisa, they've fired approximately a dozen interceptors against the incoming iranian missiles and were there any us aircraft that sent that shot interceptors? all right. >> what i've read out is what participated in the defense of israel just want more. >> can you say if there were any drones or cruise missiles that were enrolled? >> again, still assessing it right now, it appears it was ballistic missiles no drones, but again, we'll continue to assess. let me go to joseph and then we'll counter just wanted to turn to the israeli invasion of lebanon for the past couple for months, department and the secretary have called for de-escalation. >> you guys have voiced your opposition to any ground incursion invasion into the operator? after we found out

that the israeli strike last week killed the hezbollah chief, hassan nasrallah. it seems like the tone changed from the statements last night, the department and secretary said they supported what israel is doing so what changed for a change in that tone and that's stance from the department yeah. >> i think the biggest thing joseph is we fully support israel's right to defend itself against hezbollah. as we understand it they will be conducting limited operations to destroy hezbollah's infrastructure. that's a raid along the border there that could be used to threaten israelis citizens. and so we're continuing to consult with the israelis to better understand how they intend to go forward. obviously, i'd refer you to them to talk or ask questions about details regarding those operations but we fully understand as. part of their overall efforts to return people home that they do need to address those threats that are along the border. there and

so all that to say, we will continue to consult with the israelis and other partners in the region long-term about how we can ultimately de-escalate those tensions. and get to a ceasefire. >> they asked for any help from you guys doing whatever it is. now, they want to do it, sir? where are the united states surprised by the scale of the iranian attack on israel? >> well, look like i said before, we've been monitoring this for a while i ran had been very public about its threats to retaliate and so it's something that we've been monitoring certainly this was a significant attack, probably about twice the size in terms of scope of what we saw earlier but again, we're still assessing the outcomes of this and as i highlighted at the top, we certainly condemn this reckless attack, this direct attack against israel and will

continue to support israel's defense. >> several israeli media's spoke about a response tonight is really respond tonight. with this attack including some, not just, he wants some other middle eastern countries will the united states? this thing. there's where he lives them, they respond. while not going to speculate about hypotheticals. i'd refer you to the israelis to talk about the americans help them with their, well, what you're asking me as if they're going to do something saying what i'm saying is i'm not going to speculate about what or if they may do. >> as i highlighted to several of your colleagues were consulting closely with the israelis in terms of next steps with the emphasis being the defense of israel me go this side of the room oren essentially a follow-up to that question is the u.s. willing to strike iran in response to this are you putting that on or off the table we'll look garnet it again.

>> i don't want to get into hypotheticals. i think i was very clear at the top that should us forces be targeted by iran or its proxies will take it's history steps to defend our people. and i think we've also been very clear that we're going to support the defense of israel. and so matt going to get into theoretical or speculative operations at this stage other than to say we mean what we say and we say what we mean and then what a follow-up question iran claims to have used a new product missile, which is supposed to be a hypersonic ballistic missile. can you assess whether they did use new and advanced weaponry in this attack and whether they learned from the april attack again, we're still assessing the attack and the outcomes. >> and so we may have more to provide later, but i don't have anything on that right now. dam. >> thanks for your time to questions, please on secretary austin statement last night, he referred to being supportive of operations along the border is

open to israel using operations on both sides of the border along the border was a little vague. there well, i think i'd go back to how i responded to joseph. >> right. we understand. and support israel's right to defend itself against hezbollah the law as we highlighted in the readout, we understand that part of that is dismantling some of the attack infrastructure that hezbollah has built along the border. certainly again, we don't want to see this a broadening into a wider regional conflict, but we understand again that what israel is doing or limited operations to destroy that attack infrastructure and then enable citizens on both sides of the border to return home ultimately at the end of the day, we do think that a diplomatic resolution is the only way to achieve lasting stability and security across the israel-lebanon border. so we're going to continue to work to that end. but we also again understand israel's need to defend itself.

>> a follow the state department read out for a court on a attack on diplomatic facility in baghdad airport last night have you seen any other attacks on us forces? >> i guess since friday? this one would seem to be on a diplomatic facility, but be it in the last day, particularly this heightened time of tension or just brought probably over the last couple of days? >> yeah. as of right now, i'm not aware of any additional attacks thanks sir the iron dome, how effective is it against ballistic missiles in some of the televised images appeared to show some them landing on infrastructure. are you aware of that? and in general was this attack more? we're effective than the iranian attack in april again, understanding that a lot is still very initial, as i highlighted, initial indications are that there were some minimal

ground in terms of the specifics, though i'd have to refer you to israel really, to talk through that. >> and again, as more information comes in we'll certainly know more, but the initial assessment is that israel was able to successfully defend itself. of course, with the support from the u.s and so again, we may have more later on that helene thanks, pat. i just want to be clear because it seems like we're at a very dangerous time where any kind of ambiguity from the u.s. could lead to the attack on american troops. and when you say, i understand what you say that we're going to defend any attack on american troops. i also understand that no omary that you've said that no american troops therefore, are you saying the u.s. is not planning on a kinetic strike against iran, because right now, when you say there will be consequences, all that you were leaving it vague and people, donors, dana, i want to understand are we going to be joining israel in hitting back against iran in a kinetic

madam. >> yeah. so with all due respect, you're talking about a hypothetical future, right. and presupposing what israel may or may not do. so i'm just not going to talk about you said there will be consequences and jake sullivan said there will be consequences. so what i think broadly speaking the u.s. has been clear that bobi security, economic consequences should iran's attack. but i just don't have anything to preview specifically as it relates so all right. yes, sir. >> thanks, pat. >> just to clarify did any us aircraft track any of the missiles either before the launch or during in the attack, even if they weren't involved kinetically in the defense of israel. >> so i won't go into specifics, chris, other than to say, as you well know, we have a wide variety of isr capabilities throughout the region to monitor and track potential aerial threats to

include aircraft that do that i'll just leave it there okay. charlie thank you general you said repeatedly that iran doesn't telegraph these attacks yet from early this morning, we are told that an attack would be imminent we're getting some sort of information from somewhere based on whatever that was based on where his iran stan now this is just the first salvo from your assessment. >> are they positioned to go ahead and pull the trigger again at will i mean, that's really a question for iran as evidenced by this attack they certainly maintain the capability to conduct additional attacks as i highlighted at the top we call on them to hold any further attacks and will continue to assess, will also continue to be prepared to respond in the defense of israel should they opt to do another one? >> we certainly hope they do not but we obviously have to be prepared in that eventuality.

>> i just want to clarify. think he said earlier, this is twice the size and scope from the attack of april 13 yeah. >> it's about twice as large in terms of the number of ballistic missiles that they launched from the last was their intent to actually do damage this time well, look, you don't launch that many missiles at a target without the intent of hitting something. >> so absolutely, just like the last time there intent is to cause destruction and so fortunately, israel has very significant air defense capabilities and the u.s. of course, played a role in helping on that front as well. thank you, matt. >> thanks. bad. >> you said there has been no new attacks on us forces in the region what is the department tracking? >> greater threat? >> now to us forces? and are you taking any extra measures on top of the recent plus ups you've done? for force protection well, matt, i mean,

as you know, we're always taking force protection very seriously. >> we're all very well aware of the heightened tensions in the region and us central command has been for a long time now constantly assessing and reassessing the threat to ensure that our forces are protected like i mentioned, i'm not aware as i come to the podium, i'm not aware of any additional attacks beyond the one that that dan mentioned, but it's something that were obviously be keeping a close eye on to protect our forces secondly, were there any other nations other than the united states and israel who took part in intercepting missiles or helping to track them or anything like that? >> yeah. i don't have anything to provide fight on that. and obviously i wouldn't speak for other countries from here sir. i'd like to ask you guys to talk to the european allies. and if you ask for military support in protecting east drawing is another attack from israel, the proxies or is at the moment it's only in the

u.s. had been israel's military as well i'll allow other countries to speak for themselves. >> i will say. and we'll put a readout on this afternoon as soon as we're done here, the secretary did have an opportunity to talk to his french counterpart earlier this this morning, just to talk about the situation in the middle east, this was before the iranian attack occurred and so we'll get that out momentarily. broadly speaking, though, again in terms of any european cooperation with israel, that's really for individual countries to talk to. i won't speak to them. >> let me go to the phone real quick before i get in trouble task and purpose. jeff shoigu thank you. i understand that the destroyers fired about a dozen interceptors. did they hit any of the missiles? if so, how many yeah. >> thanks, jeff so again, we're

as you highlight, they fired the interceptors. we're still assessing again, outcomes of that. so i can't really i just don't have more information to provide at this time okay. let me go to heather from usni right. >> thank you so much. you mentioned that the united states has the ability and intent to respond if any of its service members are attacked over on friday, you had three us distort or two years destroyers in lcs come under attack from the houthis. it doesn't in which an iranian proxy groups. so would that give, you know, is there any, i guess, any intention to launch any attacks in response to those? service members coming under attack? >> well, first of all, heather, as you are aware there were no us service members injured in any of those attacks. and as always, we will respond appropriately at a time and place of our choosing. but i'm

not going to telegraph or speculate on any punches at this time. all right. and patrick tucker, defense one hey, thanks for doing this. >> so on the announcement of three additional aircraft squadrons f 15s, f-16s, eight-tens they use i presume that they weren't involved in any of the interception activity. can you talk a little bit about why they're there and what role they might fill now, in terms of enhancing security for us forces in the region yeah absolutely. >> well, as we've been highlighting for awhile, we have a robust amount of capability in the central command in new us european command regions and what those capabilities provide us is versatility. in terms of responding to a variety of contingencies. and so basically having the right tools in the

toolkit to be able to respond appropriately to any type of attack or contingency situation. and so as you well know, pat fighter aircraft can perform a variety of missions to include taking down drones, taking down missiles particular kinds of missiles, as well as providing isr electronic warfare types of capabilities. so all of this comes together to provide us with options on how best to respond to any type of attack into protect our forces. let me come back to the room here. yes, ma'am. >> thank you, general. the first on iran after today's attack and expected response from israel is that assessment at the pentagon? i'm still that situation in the middle east under control. and we're not in all out war yet the

second question on lebanon excuse me what's your understanding to what israel is calling limited ground operations are incursion is, it limited by in time, in scope? how do you see this? >> sure so in terms of your first question, as you know, we've been working very hard from the beginning to prevent a wider regional conflict. >> certainly the type of aggressive action that we saw by ran today makes that more challenging. but that continues to remain our focus and remain our goal is to prevent a wider regional conflict. and so we'll continue to stay laser-focused on that in terms of israel's operations again, and they are in the best position to answer questions. but our understanding in consulting with them is that again, these will be limited operations focused on dismantling

facilities that hezbollah has built along the border to stage attacks into israel so part of those discussions, again, have been focused on that there's an understanding as far as the potential mission creep. and so as it relates to the broader tensions in the region but again, we support their right to defend themselves from hezbollah attacks. and so we'll continue to consult with them on that as i mentioned, wafa ultimately, we do believe that a diplomatic resolution is the only way to achieve lasting stability and security. there a few more fill a couple more questions. what is why weren't land-based air defenses? >> this is used in did you find that you the united states have fewer partners and trying to knock down these iranian missiles this time than i did. >> in april i would compare it

to a pallet phil, you're going to use the capability that you need to respond to a particular situation. >> so that our forces were able to so quickly support israel's defense we have a wide range of capabilities or raid to be able to respond to whatever those threats may be in the most appropriate way possible. so it's less about the platform and it's more about the capability and so again, we still maintain a robust capability to be able to respond to any potential future threats as well. >> i what alito was asking which was important that sense. i think you said a red line that if iran or its forces were to attack us troops, there would be a us response against iran, at least that's what it sounded like you were saying. is that is that correct? >> what i said is it should be very clear that if iran or its proxies use this as an opportunity to attack us

forces. we will respond appropriately okay last question on things. >> i just wanted to clarify a few things that you said in terms of iran's capability i was going forward. is it clear from the u.s. side that this is the imminent risk is over of a third attack from iran will look something we're going to keep an eye on. >> we certainly hope that there's not another attack but obviously i ran maintains a capability and it's just demonstrated that they're willing to use it to direct glee attack. israel. and so we're going to continue to consult closely with israel on next steps and importantly on the defense of israel that's really limited incursion. >> have they provided any sort of a timeline? on how long they will stay there? >> but i'd refer you to israel to talk about that. i don't think it'd be appropriate for me to talk about that. he folks while there's been an understandable focus today on

the middle east before we conclude, i would like to provide a quick update on a topic closer to home as dod continues to work with federal, state, and local officials support hurricane helene response efforts as of this morning, the department has more than 6,500 service members actively engaged in relief efforts across six states florida has nearly 3,500 guardsmen activated and georgia has around 1,400 guardsmen on duty. south carolina has activated nearly 500 guardsmen along with two helicopters for their recovery efforts. tennessee has around 130 guardsmen and seven helicopters activated, and virginia has activated nearly 60 guardsmen along with one helicopter and numerous high-water vehicles additionally, since the storm past north carolina has emerged as an area of particular focus after the historical levels of flooding that occurred in the western part of that state, a multistate multiagency effort is currently underway with more than

helicopters from connecticut, maryland, pennsylvania, iowa ohio, new york's southern carolina or excuse me, south carolina and florida joining more than 800 north carolina guardsmen and providing support to devastated north carolina communities us northern command has also providing active duty support efforts to fema and the u.s. army corps of engineers is providing emergency power planning and response teams to georgia as well as dan levy and bridge inspection to tennessee and kentucky and temporary power to north carolina for further questions about national guard missions, i would encourage you to contact the specific states and questions. and for active duty support efforts to fema us northern command is standing by for service specific evacuation efforts. it's best to contact the services directly as the dod continues to aid response efforts, secretary austin and department leaders will continue to be engaged and stay in close contact with federal, state, and local officials to ensure resources are available and to maximize a coordinated response. and in the days ahead, the department will continue to keep our fellow

americans who have been impacted by the storms, devastation, and our thoughts. thank you very much, everybody. appreciate it >> you have the pentagon spokesman, general patrick ryder briefing not only on what's going on the middle east, a huge developing story with enormous potential locations right now. but at the very end, saying with the u.s military is doing to help the folks in the southeastern part of the united states, anderson deal with the aftermath of hurricane helene. and it's a very significant development as well. and thank god for those us military personnel, national guard, and other troops who have gone into help those folks who desperately neither, but most of his words were dealing with the crisis that's unfolding right now, the escalating tension in the middle east. so far he says, no damage to us troops, but he did say and i think it's significant exactly what jake sullivan, the president's national security advisor, set at the white house, would anthony blinken, the secretary of state, said, we're bathroom miller state department spokesman said and basically saying we fully support

israel's right to defend itself. and the u.s. military will do whatever is necessary to help israel in this effort. >> he also gave a little bit more detail about what the us involvement was in the defense of israel during this latest attack. he said they fired approximately it doesn't interceptors from two navy destroyers in the eastern mediterranean. those have been pre-positioned on site along with a number of other assets. there's fighter squadron assets, and a carrier strike group in the arabian sea, but it was these two destroyers that were involved firing about a dozen interceptors. he did not specify whether what were the results of those firings were, aware that they each hit their targets they're still doing assessments on that, but the other thing that he also stressed was that this was what he is calling a significant escalation, which is the same language that jake sullivan has used and others as six significant escalation from the iranian attack that took place in april, which involve drones and others. this was purely as

far as they know right now, ballistic missile strikes, he said at twice the size of that attack in april which was viewed as the first time there was a state on-state around on israel attack. this is now the second time, and it's being viewed as an escalation. so the question is does israel's response also escalate to what israel did before we're going to take a short break. we're following our breaking news coverage continues after a quick message >> i've been saying publicly what people are saying themselves i have enough money. i could just shut off and back to his car saturday at seven on cnn 3,200, fix your cars, they see 4,500 to repair your breaks, 5,000 replace your transmission car expenses that up fast and get costly and

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and promo products, all backed by our guarantee, accustoming.com i'm alayna treene traveling with the trump campaign. >> and this is cnn cooper and i are back with our breaking news coverage. major developments, iran, launching a barrage of ballistic missiles at israel, irans president now saying, today's attack, and i'm quoting now was only a portion. he says of our power. our teams are on the ground witnessing dozens of missiles over the cities of tel aviv, even jerusalem and haifa as well in northern israel, us officials estimate iran fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles towards israel. israel says some of them actually made a direct impact in central and southern israel now iran says this attack was in response for the killing of hezbollah leader hassan nasrallah and other commanders of the iran-backed militant group. it says it targeted three israeli military military bases around tel aviv. israel's military is vowing that iran's attack, quote,

will have consequences. moments ago, former president donald trump had this to say about the attack the world right now is spiraling out of control. >> you might not have seen what's happened because there was a few hours ago, a lot of people were here. there are so many people outside, which we appreciate, but a lot of people here, short time ago, i ran, launched 181 ballistic missiles at israel and we just, its, i've been talking about world war iii for a long time, and i don't want to make predictions because the predictions always come true and i'm going to make, but they are very close to global catastrophe. we have a non-existent president and a non-existent vice president. >> let's discuss what's going on. kim dozier is joining us right now. kim you're in national security analysts that we've heard trump makes similar claims before about conflicts that saying they never would have happened had he still been president of the united states. first of all, give us your reaction to this

well, the calendar to that is that iran has been helping hezbollah and hamas plan for large-scale attacks against israel for at least the past decade. >> so this confrontation was always in the offing we'll find out. you've been to israel. i've been to israel and gaza and the briefings over and over and over about the 150,000 some missiles and rockets that iran has helped his beloved store in lebanon ready to fire south now, the one good thing about this attack, if there was anything good about it is that iran says it was aiming at military bases. so iran hasn't escalated to the next step of hitting israeli industry israeli ports, or even worse, israeli civilian areas so it wasn't successful in that. it didn't overwhelm israel and us air defenses and iran also hasn't ratcheted up by trying

to attack and cause major civilian casualties we should point out though iran but all us officials are pointing out that iran, they're saying it has escalated significantly by using purely ballistic missiles. >> whereas before in april, they use slower-moving drones, which are easier to hit and it was actually double the amount of ballistic missiles than they used in april yeah, in april, it was 110 ballistic missiles, approximately 30 cruise missiles, which are much slower. >> and then a selection and assortment of armed drones, which were also at that time knocked out of the sky i now, this time it was somewhere north of 180 ballistic missiles. and those are very fast. they can take about ten to 12 minutes from iran to israel. so this was intended to strike its targets but the air defense system proved superior.

the question is, how is israel going to respond last time it took israel about a week and israel hit the air defense systems near esfahan. these are the s 300 air defense systems that are designed to protect fordow. one i know of iran's most sensitive nuclear sites. it was like a signal that said, we could have hit your nuclear sites. we took out their defense, but we didn't go that far. so check yourself now the question is, will they take that next step and hit closer to a sensitive target in iran? and that's where you get into what we all call the sum, this escalation ladder one serious hit followed by another more serious hit and that's where you could spiral into something out of control our special coverage of this conflict continues. >> we're going to be talking to military analysts to look at what might be targeted in iran israel chooses to respond we'll

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revolutionary guard corps says the attack was aimed at military and security targets in israel was retaliation for the deaths of several senior officials in the revolutionary guard as well as in the group hezbollah and hamas. >> those groups, anderson has our viewers know we're all backed by iran big time. the deaths, the recent deaths include hassan nasrallah, the secretary general of hezbollah, killed by an israeli airstrike on friday the fight against israel has been intensifying since october 8. that's what his balah began firing across the border from lebanon into israel a day after the october 7 terrorist attack that killed more than 1,000 israelis. israel has been firing back and the cross border battle has forced the evacuation of more than 60,000 israelis and 100,000 lebanese. and in the area, cnn's kim dozier is still with us, our global

affairs analyst, along with cnn military analyst, retired us air force colonel cedric leighton, colonel. first of all, what's your reaction to these strikes? heard the defense department spokesman, general patrick ryder say that to us guided-missile destroyers, the uss cole and the uss bulkeley were involved in sending up interceptors to try to knock down those ballistic missiles coming towards tel aviv and elsewhere in israel if the he, israeli air defense missile system, the iron dome for example, the uss guided-missile destroyer interceptors had not worked. what kind of damage with those iranian ballistic missiles done? have done in a heavily populated city like tel aviv oh will the damage would have been considerable especially if they'd been even somewhat on target. these types of missiles that the iranians sent toward israel are designed to have maximum explosive effect. and if they had hit a target to one

of the intended targets, like let's say, the headquarters of the israelis kelly intelligence service, the mossad, the damage would have been probably quite severe but as we know, that did not happen and because it didn't happen not only is the mossad headquarters still intact, but other areas, civilian areas, and other military or government installations are still operational in tel aviv. >> so kim, what, what's your sense right now? i'm convinced that this is going to escalate big time, but i'm anxious to get your thoughts. are they going to quiet things down or is this just the beginning? >> i think you're going to see israel respond in some ways, strunk, striking something inside iran as it did last time. but another warning shot not something like they may find something to hit other than an iranian nuclear facility, which would be an all bets are off kind of situation. but this friction is going to continue because the israeli

incursion into lebanon it's going to go likely for some weeks because what the israeli defense forces are trying to do his penetrate all the bunkers and the tunnels where hezbollah has stored other ballistic missiles like the ones that were fired tonight, that could travel much faster and reach all populated parts of israel. and that operation, as we've seen, with the tunnels in gaza, it takes while to find the mall and then to dismantle whatever weapons they find. they've done something like 70 raids in the past 24 hours but with hundreds of miles of tunnels reportedly built with the help of iran and north korea by his villa. there's going to be a lot to map out and destroy. and each day that goes zone on, those missiles are supposed to be kept in reserve for irans, us, and iran may want to try to do something to keep its strategic

reserve from being completely destroyed colonel leighton, we only have about two minutes left, but if israel did choose to respond to try to strike directly at iran nuclear clear facilities, what capabilities do they have? >> what kind of damage could they do well, anderson, one of the key things about this is that the iranians have designed of their nuclear facilities under some really incredibly hardened facilities. >> one of the key things in iranian universities is to study engineering, specifically we with cement and hardened cement is one of the reasons that we have these bunker busting bombs that are designed to penetrate these kinds of targets. the types of capabilities as 2000 pound bombs that we've been talking about in gaza and in beirut and lebanon those would be the types of weapons among the types of weapons that the israelis would probably use if they were to do something like that. >> you think they will i don't think they will at this point in time, but they're going to hold that in reserve. because there's been a lot of

speculation and israel lot of pressure on the government to use this moment right now to go after iran's nuclear capability prevent iran from ever developing some sort of nuclear bomb, which they see as a major threat potentially down the road to israel's very existence yeah, that's certainly true. will fend one of the things that prime minister netanyahu has to decide is whether or not he's going to go along that hard line rule that you pointed out or whether he's going to send a message as we've been talking about just a few minutes ago and obviously the israeli cabinet has been meeting discussing this into the night, will obviously learn more in the coming hours. >> it's going to be a dangerous situation suspect it's going to escalate thank you all for joining us has been seen in special coverage of the iranian strikes on israel here in the united states and the vice presidential debate is only five hours chris of dow, i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern for special coverage leading up to that event anderson will join the coverage at 7:00 p.m. eastern.

>> but f