years. >> thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> my pleasure. >> coverage of the air strikes continues now with chris hayes. >> breaking news tonight in the american war on isis as the u.s. begins air strikes in syria. according to the pentagon the decision to start air strikes was made earlier today and the bombing began about 2 1/2 hours ago as the news agency posted this video. perports to show air strikes over the city in syria that has been the headquarters or capital for what isis calls the newly declared islamic state. the pentagon is offering few details, but confirms along with partner nation forces are taking action against isis and syria. there is no indication of which partner nations are involved.

sources tell us that saudi arabia, the united arab emirates, bahrain, jordan and qatar. white house correspondent chris jansing, what is the white house saying publicly at this moment? >> publicly they are saying absolutely nothing. what we know is this is significant what you just said. these partner nations. we heard from the president that he planned to have a coalition. we heard from samantha power, the un ambassador. if air strikes happen in syria, the united states was not going to go it alone and sig knave cant that it comes on the eve of the president going to the united nations to do what he calls rallying the world around this threat that is posed by isis. you had bombers and fighter jets and tomahawk cruise missiles raining down. we are about 2/3 where they are in syria.

the president, we expect will hear from him tomorrow. he leaves at around 10:20 eastern time. the president went before the american people and gave a speech and he said that he was willing to go into syria and he was willing to work to form this coalition. we saw some of the ground work that was done at the nato summit. as they were leaving, they said what they wanted to do was to go into the united nations general assembly with the coalition forum. as you know, it has been very difficult to get very specific commitments. even those countries you named that we're learning were involved tonight, we don't know specifically the level of involvement, but clearly the president wants to go and show that militarily as well as diplomatically because there is

significant moves or at least what the administration sees as significant and diplomatic moves will happen in the united nations on wednesday and thursday. they can say that the u.s. is not going it alone. this is an international push and recognition on the international stage of the threat posed by isis. >> it's a remarkable and dramatic context for these strikes to be happening on the night before the president heads to new york for the un general assembly. this is the one week out of the year where every world leader is in one place. in new york. the president comes every year and makes an address. all major world leaders often will make addresses. he is now -- the president who won a nobel peace prize and the man who campaigned obviously against the war in iraq is going to go before the un general assembly having begun military operations with the group of arab nations in yet another

country in syria. something this president himself resist and warned against and is going to make the case that essentially isis is a threat to all nations across the sectarian and even ideological speck. >> in broader context, it was just year ago when this president addressed the united nations. he was talking about the drawdown in afghanistan and iraq and how iraqi forces were going to provide for their own sources. you are right. this is most unusual. this is the one move and he is only the 6th world leader who headed up one of the sessions.

the un security council was the threat of foreign fighters. leading the charge that the un is going to state that they will do something the president talked about in his speech almost two weeks ago. he wanted to be able to go in with the statement that the arab allies are with us and with this action, the indication of the other nations involved that he will be able to go into. >> most surprising is qatar. qatar is fabulously wealthy like the uae and small and very oil-rich. it has been identified by a variety of folks as one of the channels for some of the most militant groups in syria

including the precursors for isis. they are playing both sides from the optics that qatar is on this list of the sunni nations that are part of the coordinated air strikes tonight. >> that was the push back with some sources. they suggested they were not sure how deep they were for the reasons you site. up until this point, the most significant statement that they were able to make was about saudi arabia and able to do some training there. the president will have to go and i think the plan is for him to go before the united nations and to be able to enumerate the contributions that these countries are making. it's going to be important

necessary them at home and it will be important for bringing others on board and going to be important for him who as you so rightly stated at the beginning of this hour has been and certainly very thoughtfully and ka carefully made the decision to launch air strikes. now in syria that he is able to keep his word to the american people. the week since the nato summit. in particular, john kerry and samantha power and there were a 99 of meetings and they said it. 140 world leaders.

chief of foreign correspondent richard engle. richard, what do we know about the actual strikes here. where they happened and what they're intended to do. this is a strategic shift. the united states wants to target isis which is syria. the u.s. has been targeting in iraq, but they had enormous safe havens and now they are going after isis in syria. this is not just going to be one target or we hear about 20 targets tonight. if you target the known isis position now, you watch and

there drones for surveillance planes and satellite cover over syria right now. you watch how these targets scatter. you watch how the isis militants move from place to place and follow and there will be strikes throughout the morning and this is all projected. they announced they will build the coalition and they said which countries will be participating and it gave isis time to move assets and the key personnel into towns and villages out and that's the home base and you can't move the command and control centers.

>> you can cover them on the street, but they can still be found. >> can you talk a little bit about the significant of basically the capital to the extent there is such thing as an islamic state and i don't think they declared it to be such, they have emerged as the capital where isis has been running things. >> raqqa is a city in eastern syria. not very far from iraq. the militants had a sanctuary for well over a year. that that has been the uncontested area for a long

time. there two capitals. raqqa? syria and mosul in iraq. raqqa is a city of several hundred thousand and mosul has two million. raqqa is going to have civilian casualtie casualties, but the other which is mo cell which is far bigger. second or third largest in iraq i was remembering the earliest days of the military operations in afghanistan in the wake of 9/11. you were dealing with jihadi's armies that were overpowered by any military since.

we fought for 13 years and it's unclear whether there was a definitive viktly. >> you have this militant group. let's go back to afghanistan. in 2001, 9/11 happens and we have the taliban and al qaeda entrenched in afghanistan. three months from intense and almost no troops on the ground. there were special forces there, but about 400 in total. one american guy cost roughly $1

billion. after three months, the taliban and al qaeda were moved. al qaeda was on the run. this area was liberated. this was the northern alliance and they took control. things were stable. then the war in iraq happened and they took their eye off the ball and things got complicate and it lasted over a decade. had they stopped after three months, things could have been different. let's say it's comparable. it's easier to get a sense of the smaller.

we don't have a northern alliance. there is a big difference there. the significance is a number of ways. there is a sectarian war between sunni and shia that is harking across the region. this is the by product of a sectarian war. a war that the u.s. helps to reinvigorate. they fanned the flame of the war. isis is a terrorist group that has global ambitions.

they doubted it in the past and they had global ambitions. this is the result of a much older and larger conflict that the united states cannot hope to solve. >> thank you so much. i appreciate it. >> good to talk to you. >> we are following breaking news at this hour. the united states has begun bombing syria with tomahawk and land missiles. stay with us right here on msnbc. you make a great team. it's been that way since the day you met. but your erectile dysfunction - it could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity.

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my name is julia grinberg i work in ehere in san francisco.g&e my job is to help my customer save money, save energy and save the environment. when it comes to renewable energy and energy efficiency pg&e is absolutely committed to creating a clean energy future. one out of every four solar rooftops in america is in our service area. i loved growing up in the bay area. it's wonderful to work in the in the city where i live and help my neighbors and i feel the work that i do reflects that every single day. the united states and allies have begun bombing syria. we are live and following this still breaking story, next.

>>. >> breaking news at this hour. isis targets inside syria are under way. they began at approximately 8:30 p.m. eastern standard time. reports to show the air strikes. the video is not yet confirmed. pentagon press secretary john kirby describes the action as u.s., military and partner nation forces using fighter, bomber and attack missiles. the headquarters and logistic sites and training sites and troop encampments. the location of these are in and around raqqa, syria. that's one of the two capitals. other nations of saudi arabia

and bahrain, jordan and qatar are involved operationally in the air strikes. this is just 12 day as after president obama outlines a strategy against isis. >> i made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists wherever they are. that means i will not hesitate to take action in syria as well as iraq. this is a core principal of my presidency. if you threaten america, you will find no safe haven. >> joining me now by phone in studio, terrorism analyst with global partners. let me start with you. the enemy gets a voes. what do we expect to see from isis which is against the backdrop of the un general assembly. this is a global war. it expanded past and it's a

global war. >> indeed. the spokesman of isis over 24 hours ago, the attacks on the hide outs in syria, he reached out to the supporters globally. especially in australia and europe as well as syria. just attack civilian military, it does not matter. they caused damage to us and we cause damage to them. he promised this will be the last bombardment the united states is going to carry against the islamic state. it's unfathomable to believe, but he is reaching out to western countries. i think it's significant. >> what do you think they are driving for in terms of the u.s.? there is a reason to think they want to beat the u.s. into

conflict. they are now the force that is fighting the u.s. there is other reasons to think that obviously they have now invited in a massive amount of power. it's a battlefield that is difficult and complex. what are they trying to do? >> it's solidifying the grievance that we are facing. it reoccurred in afghanistan. in arabic for the crusader war. on the other hand, they are showing themselves to be an actual state. they claim to be the state with a stronghold and logistic support and soldiers and army. for them they are trying to demonstrate. >> being treated by a state in war and that part of their prop granda is that they declared a state. >> that rallies support for them

and financial report for them primarily. >> how long can you anticipate this will be in the phase that sustained ariel bombardment and talking about heavily populated cities. mosul of course where you run the risk of civilian casualties. the terrain and repel any attacks that will come after the fact. that's not going to be americans. we will have special forces and operational forces and so on on

the ground. that doesn't seem to be in the offense yet. this campaign to the backdrop of the meeting is kind of an interesting juxtaposition. it's going to be just -- these are powerful attacks, but they are really just tactical and they are going take a long, long time. also you mentioned it, a lot of the affects now are going to be in built up areas. they are not going to attack those with any precision. we are not going to have collateral damage. rook for this to go on for

sometime. >> from the propaganda perspective of isis, they talk about the war. part of the reason they have been so careful. they insisted on the coalition of regional air partners is to cut against two possibilities. they are aligning with the shias against the sunnis, part of the perception that gave rise to isis. we are not going to be the air force for the militias who are doing horrible things to sunnis throughout the region. this is not a crusader war. the guardians of the holy land. will that scan and will that matter? >> absolutely not. as a matter of fact isis views the sunni regimes around the shiites. the regime is the king dochl

jordan. they are proxy regimes protecting the interest of the united states that claims this is where the drones come out from. from saudi arabia. this is what the intelligence provides for the united states. they see this spearheaded and colonel jack, part of the battlefield in terms of perception. you will not convince isis. what is globally will have actual effects on the ground in terms of what these countries that are this now engaging in the escalation can and cannot achieve. >> it looks to me like the coalition has come with great reluctance.

i think it will be difficult to engender the military support that they will need to defeat isis. that means people on the ground. we have been talking about training the moderate rebels, something of an oxymoron it seems to me. to go into syria. and they need a lot more of those and really defeat isis. in the interim, all we are going to see are attacks on targets of opportunity. far away from built up areas. we can confine them and identify them from the electronics and to

the extent that they go underground, it will be more and more pressure on these coalitions to do something that's one reason and one thing they will contribute to this lasting a long time. >> we should note here as a matter of being on the record. we are talking in the moral standing. bahrain that they request protesters, these states that have aligned are not necessary

ly beacons of human rights. thank you very much. we are following breaking news tonight in the american war on isis. the u.s. began air strikes in syria about 2 1/2 hours ago. stay with us for the very latest live on msnbc. what's that? snapshot from progressive. plug it in, and you can save on car insurance based on your good driving. you sell to me? no, it's free. you want to try? i try this if you try... not this. okay. da!

>> here we have confirmation for the pentagon after bombs began to fall. on twitter, the air strikes came about 20 minutes before.

a blow by blow account breaking huge explosions on what might be the beginning of air strikes. they are concentrated near the building, isis's main headquarters. finally the sky is full drones or raqqa now. your reaction to a fairly remarkable feat that this was put together if in fact these countries, bahrain, qatar, jordan and saudi arabia are operationally involved. when you are looking at the strikes, obviously what this means for neighboring countries and the region. we talk about the areas

involved, you have to think about it operationally and ideas logically. given political support through the ongoing operations. in some cases the capabilities over the airspace. it is a significant development that and they are willing to get involved. does it regain what it lot of and what will the syrian government do? it has been very public in saying it does not welcome air strikes inside the territory. it warned the u.s. from doing it. the real question is going to be whether or not in the coming

da days. >> you have to wonder what assad's move will be here now. some speculated that there has been two cases about this. some speculated that they are going to take up whatever territory isis pushed back bite coalition activity. others say isis and assad feed on each other and taking out isis is bad for assad because he pointed to isis saying it's me or them. what do we anticipate from the syrian army here? >> you touched on the alignment of interests by some analyst perspectives. as they weaken and degrade, this has been a major concern for the turkish government it will not

take operations that will strengthen assad's hand. and others that they said they vetted out. will it be able to move in and fight that to weaken that? it is a lot of dimensions. >> what do you think we are going to see at the un general assembly tomorrow. it does seem that isis because they didn't exist as a state before and because they have been monsterous and have antagonized everyone, no one likes these guys. they are universally loathed. at the same time lots of nations are talking about military force inside the borders of the nations to the extent they are meaningful. what do you anticipate we will

see from nations at the un general assembly with the news now spreading? >> i think you are going to hear every country try to claim a little victory and why this is an important fight. a country like egypt and the president expected to address the un. he has been making the point that the fight cannot be inside syria alone. they are escalating with similar fighting taking place. you hear countries talking about why this is a fight. you will hear from pop and jordanians and others. you can expect others to raise the flag about the issue of sovereignty and another u.s. military involvement in the mideast. countries like russia who are obviously in wider geopolitics have their own crisis.

they will not make this easy for the united states in terms of the ongoing effort at the united nations. perhaps other countries like china. you can expect a lot of wrangling, but the countries closest will try to say this is an important fight and everyone try to shape it in a little bit of their own narrative as to why they had to do this. it is a sunni violence between them both in iraq and also in syria and was from the beginning. i talked about this and it does seem the significance in the broader perception is quite large that you do have the five sunni nations participating in this.

>> it is. it's extremely important that you are building this coalition of countries and important countries there questions as to whether or not there was communication with the irani government which has been strong in the condemn nation of isis. it has been left out of the talks and the diplomatic talks taking place in paris that brought together dozens of country to address the problem. and he questioned whether or not air strikes are going to get the job done and whether or not the u.s. was afraid of putting boots

on the ground. >> thank you. >> we are following breaking news at this hour as the u.s. has begun air strikes against isis in syria. stay with the latest here live on msnbc.

>> the targeted actions with isil's safe havens. the lo justices capabilities and infrastructure. general dempsey and i have both approve and spent considerable time reviewing and adapting the plan. >> chuck hagel told the panel the plan for the campaign included military action in

syria. they are engaged and did not say what other countries are involved. they are all involved operationally. up to 20 targets including the fuel and training sites a& i'm looking at the congressman and he talks about our men and women. the fight is something that the

white house has said. >> worth noting when they said that plus the military analyst plus the pentagon leaders. the opening night of the and the commencement of the air war against the saddam hussein government in iraq in 2003. a big wave of air strikes and change on the ground. it was going to be a year long fight ahead of us. it may not be and it's not going to be the second phase of the war right now. that's going to take place over the next several days and weeks.

that will be harder to strike. we don't have the intelligence to go after the senior leadership. it will be a far more difficult phase. that difficulty is going to mean it will drag out for sometime. he resisted the calls arming and training rebels. a year ago in which the intervention against assad and syria almost happened over the use of chemical weapons. this president is engaged in the u.s. in the midst of the civil war. they tried so hard for so long to stay out of it. >> it's hard to look into their heads. what changed is the situation on the ground. large swaths that was country has fallen into the hands of

isis. no longer it became a situation where the warehouse can say this was too difficult of a problem to engage in. this is not something we have to do militarily and the situation can't force their hands. even though we commence this action here against targets in iraq tonight, it's not clear what the game plan is here. you can only accomplish so much with air strikes. there is a plan to train resistance fighters and that's a drop in the bucket. in the earlier minutes, it's going to be hard to see how they

react and it doesn't go away. a huge unanswered question. there is not a clear path to the victory and stability. >> victory and stability in iraq. it goes very well. they are hard to see. in iraq it might be clearer than syria. difficult in both cases. we are monitoring breaking news as the u.s. has begun air strikes in syria. stay with us.

>> breaking news. the u.s. commenced air strikes against syria. stay with us for the latest.

>> we are not going to coordinate. we are going to do what they evaporate done. they had plenty of opportunity to take on isil and create it and eliminate it as a threat. >> isis targets inside syria and income emphasized isis to be the enemy. according to the pentagon, bombing began about 8:30 eastern time. the united arab emirates involved in the air strike campaign. we will have the latest on the air strikes next.

>> the air strikes began about 8:30 p.m. syrian activist news agency posted this video that has not been confirmed, but perports air strikes over raqqa out of which isis has been operating. they use a mix of fighter, bomber and land attack missiles and have undertaken the military action according to the press secretary. a senior gulf diplomat said others are involved

operationally in the air strikes. targets with the command and control, training sites and troop encampments. editor at large of the atlantic. this is the first wave of assault on isis. there will be blow back and significant money and lives cost ahead. not a one-way war. >> we have taken a bold step and pulled together a coalition to throw a lot of fire at isis a& will they take action and be

activated. we don't know how the command and control is. whether they will be able to animate the return to fire or a lot of discussion. it is a mistake to think when there was an action taken like the one we are seeing tonight as clearly dramatic as this is, there is always going to be a return. there is always going to be a hard fight. and years perhaps. this will be a mistake to think there not serious costs is and sacrifices involved. >> what do you think we will hear from the president as he talks about this. >> there is nothing civilized about it to be recognizing it.

he expressed his own concern and problems. they have their own anti-izes rebels. >> i think you will see a bold statement and posturing. any time you see the size of the footprints somewhere, we need to think about what other parts of the puzzle moves. how does russia move and how does china move and assad try to survive it and there is a lot of impoppederables. >> thank you, steve. that is all for this evening. the rachel maddow show starts now. >> good evening, krigs. the u.s. military said they started bombing inside syria. it is awkward to say that the u.s. is bombing inside syria instead of just saying they are

bombing syria, but that awkward phrasing is because this campaign is not against the syrian government. or the syrian a group that now controls huge swaths of both syria and iraq. u.s. bomber and fighter jets and drones have been bombing inside iraq since august 8th. the iraqi government welcomed and in fact begged for those air strikes to help iraqi security forces fight against isis in that country. but over the border in syria, it is a very different story. the government in syria does not welcome and is certainly not asking for u.s. air strikes inside their country. in fact, syria has said it would see any air strikes by anyone on its territory as an act of aggression. but those air strikes have in fact, started tonight. the u.s. military announcing that these aircraft, f-22s, f-16