cnn's chief international correspondent clarissa ward is in ukraine with the latest. clarissa? >> reporter: hi, fredricka. i think the primary consideration for the ukranians is they want to make sure the investigation goes ahead. they want to see the dead identified and returned to ukraine, and they want to see the beginnings of a judicial process whereby people, innocent people and families of those lives lost could start to receive some compensation as well, as the ukranian airliner. we heard from president zelensky, he basically said iran's admission of guilt is a step in the right direction, but now those things need to happen with no delays. there needs to be unfettered access, no more stalling for time, and the beginnings as i said of the judicial process. we saw the ukranian special prosecutor's office change the category of the plane crash to what they call willful killing and aircraft destruction. that's about teeing up the judicial process that would have to begin. we also heard today from ukranian airlines and understandably they faced some criticism for their decis

want to get perspective from our chief international correspondent clarissa ward and josh rogin and retiredeutenant general mark hu hurtling. clarissa, the big question is what comes next and if this is going to ultimately lead to some sort of broader conflict in the region. you spend a lot of time there. i'm wondering how you think things may go or how fragile you think things are right now. >> i think this is absolutely an inflection point, anderson. i think there is a huge amount of anxiety in the region at the moment. even among people who are jubilant at seeing the death of qassim soleimani as to how exactly iran will respond. there is a broad consensus iran has to respond given the gravity of this killing, given what a towering figure soleimani was not just in iran but across many different countries and so the question becomes what does that look like? where does it take place? look at all the different countries where iran's proxies extend their tentacles to whether it's yemen, whether it's syria, iraq, lebanon, afghanistan, you're talking about many different prospects, the persian

and clarissa ward. a has just reached the scene of where one of those missile strikes happened in northern iraq. so spider, this commander threatening of harsher revenge to come. should we put any stock in that? >> sure, absolutely. in fact, i think what we probably saw was just the first strike in an ongoing relationship that i think has been defined over years. i think the iranians wanted to do two things. one is do something that would have some flash and some bang. they could get attribution for going back at the united states. and that was done yesterday. and that was for internal consumption in iran. and also a limited strike. we can talk about that a little bit. but secondarily, i think they reserve the right and they have always done the right defined by themselves. they have conducted asymmetric actions against the united states and others in the region through proxies and out of the region through proxies, through cyber attack. i mean, there are other ways, activities in the persian gulf. so i

clarissa ward, thank you so much. excuse me. >> clarissa, thank you very much.we said, we're going to speak with secretary of state in just a moment. stay right here. >>> again, back to the breaking news this morning. the assassination of iran's most powerful military and intelligence leader marks a significant escalation in tension across the region and between the u.s. and iran. here to talk about who the man was and what this all means for the united states and the world is peter binart. good to have you here. you do not -- i mean, you see this very clearly. you say this is the single most reckless act in your view of american foreign policy since the iraq war. explain why as americans wake up to this news. they know this is the man responsible for 603 americans over the years in iraq and was according to the secretary of state moments ago planning imminent threat to american lives. >> that's what the united states government is saying, right? i think it's important for us to remember particularly in the wake of the iraq war and particularly given what we kno

. >> chief international correspondent clarissa ward is in erbil in northern iraq.ran targeted that city as well as al asad air base in central iraq causing moderate damage but no casualties. >> reporter: it was extremely eerie to be flying in to erbil at night. the airport was essentially deserted. ours was one of the only flights that have not canceled because one of the missiles that fell in erbil actually landed within the perimeter of the airport. this is obviously extremely important place strategically for the u.s. it is the heart of the fight against isis. a lot of special forces operatives working in and around this area. that fight is now frozen, but we did notice in our hotel roughly 100, if not more, u.s. military contractors, they had essentially been evacuated from places like baghdad, also from the balad air base amid fears of continuing attacks. the assumption was that erbil was the safe place to send people, but iran sending a powerful message last night that no place is essentially beyond the reach or completely secure from the reach of their missi

clarissa ward, cnn, bardaras, iraq. >> thank you. and as members of congress on both sides express their dissatisfaction with the intelligence provided to them on why soleimani was killed, cnn has new reporting about the driving force behind the president's decision. secretary of state mike pompeo, the one with all the information here, cnn special correspondent jamie gain gel, you've been reporting that really throughout secretary pompeo's career he has believed that is the root of middle east problems. tell me what you know. >> absolutely. it goes back a decade, and he thinks iran is the root of the problems, and he thought that one man, soleimani was the terrorist mastermind behind it. he has been, according to his friends and colleagues, on a mission. he's a former military man, and he would tell friends and colleagues -- i want to read the quote -- i will not retire from public service until soleimani is off the battlefield. so this is something that goes way back. let's remember, he went to west point. a lot of his colleagues h

our cnn chief international correspondent clarissa ward is in erbil, iraq, where multiple locations were targeted. i know you've just gotten your feet on the ground there. i don't know how much you'll be able to see. can you talk me through about any damage or anyone in the area, their reaction to this? >> reporter: so, you know, i have to tell you, brooke, it was a little chilling to be landing on a plane in the pitch black late at night here in erbil because essentially the vast majority of flights have been canceled. the airport was a virtual ghost town. most airliners deciding not to go ahead and fly into erbil because there was a missile that did hit within the perimeter of the airport. it didn't explode, but certainly it has got tensions raised and people concerned about security. when we arrived at our hotel here, there was kind of an extraordinary scene in the lobby. i would say roughly 100 u.s. military contractors all who were essentially evacuated from baghdad area, from the balad air base area, presumably evacuated here because this was always presumed to be a sort of safe ha

clarissa ward, thank you for that reporting. cnn national security analyst peter bergen is with us now, peter is also the author of a book, trump and his general, the cost of acos. are you surprised that iran is admitting to downing of the plane after beginning to adamantly deny it. >> i think they wised up and it was clearly a missile attack. bad stories don't improve with time. as the facts are all against you. just think about the jamal khashoggi murder a year ago in istanbul, the saudis didn't admit about what had happened to that journalist and the couns lat in istanbul for many, many weeks which kept the story alive on cnn and other networks for many, many weeks. here now there is some closure, and i think clarissa raised the issue of compensation, we had a very analogous incident 20 years ago when an american warship brought down an iranian airliner, at a time of heightened tensions, 290 people were killed on board, and eventually, the united states government paid compensation to the pamlys of the victims and i'm, famili

let's go to our chief international correspondent clarissa ward in kiev. what are you hearing? >> so we are learning that president zelensky just wrapped up a call with secretary of state mike pompeo. we saw secretary of state pompeo tweeting that he had expressed his condolences to the president, that he said the u.s. would try to help facilitate the investigation in any way possible. we also know that earlier today, the ukrainian foreign minister sat down with the u.s. charge d'affaires from the embassy here and that some data was shared with the ukrainians. up until now, there's definitely been a sense of frustration from ukraine's authorities who say that they've been learning about the allegations that the plane was shot down by an iranian missile from media statements. and they made a plea yesterday for more information from various countries with pertinent intelligence about their investigations leading them to come to this conclusion. as you mentioned, poppy, they are being pretty tight lipped. they're saying they know it's a possibility the plane was shot down. but the

cnn's clarissa ward is in erbil, the northern kurdish region of iraq, near where some of last night'ss struck. so, clarissa, talk about the situation there tonight? >> reporter: well, anderson, it's very quiet here tonight, but i have to say, it was extremely eerie to be flying in to erbil at night. the airport was essentially deserted. ours was one of the only flights that was not canceled because one of the missiles that fell in erbil actually landed within the perimeter of the airport. this is, obviously, extremely important place strategically for the u.s. it is the heart of the fight against isis. a lot of special forces operatives working in and around this area. that fight is now frozen, but we did notice in our hotel, roughly a hundred, if not more, u.s. military contractors, they had essentially been evacuated from places like baghdad, also from the beladd air base amid fears of continuing attacks. the assumption was that erbil was the safe place to send people, but iran sending a powerful message last night that no place is essentially beyond the reach or completely secure f

joining us now is clarissa ward, cnn chief international correspondent and nick paton walsh cnn securityor. good to have both of you with all of why you are vast experience in that region. nick, you have written a piece in which you say the fact that iran didn't respond immediately, they seem to be biding their time tells us something. what does it tell us? >> reporter: well, i think many people perhaps particularly in the white house with the 24 hour cable news diet may have been expecting some sort of immediate response that was loud and flir yeed in the days ahead. we are getting a clearer message from iran and the region that they are looking to push the u.s. out of the region as much as they can as the predominant focus of their response and that is a multi-month long frankly an impossible task given there are tens of thousands of u.s. troops here, but the slow nature of that is something i think perhaps that javad zarif is beginning to realize in the interview with fred there where he talks about is america safer, seems to appeal to the american electorate. the leader of lebanese h

clarissa ward joining us in iraq right now, and be careful over there, clarissa. over straight to the white house right now and our chief white house correspondent jim acosta is joining us. jim, what are you learning about the tense situation and how it unfolded over the last 24 hours or so? >> well, wolf, for now, the president appears to be turning down the decision and welcoming a decision of iran to pull back from the brink of war, but a white house official tells cnn that some consideration was given last night to striking back to iran and the decision came to hold off until the facts came in, and still the potential nor a iranian retaliation is remaining as cities in u.s. are on alert for terror and cyber threats. >> reporter: the day of the iran fired missiles at the u.s. forces as retaliation for the killing of a top general, president trump defended the position to de-escalate the crisis by holding back. >> iran appears to be standing down which is a good thing nor all parties concerned and very good thing for the world. no american or iraqi lives were lo

frederik pleitgen and clarissa ward. tell us everything we need to know, particularly about the debris field, et cetera. >> we were focusing on the debris field because of reports that large and small parts have been taken away from that debris field which some people think is a strange thing to be happening. we got in touch with the head of iran's civil aviation authority and he confirmed that big and small parts of that plane had been taken away. he said the reason is the iranian authorities are bringing these parts to a hangar as he put it to try and piece those parts together as part of the forensic work to then better determine whether or not the plane may have been hit by some outside object or what else may have happened to that plane. he says it's something that's very important for investigators to do. nevertheless, as far as the crash site is concerned, we have some eyewitness accounts that we've been getting, including one eyewitness who said yesterday the scene there, he described it as chaotic saying not jus

clarissa is ward is on the ground for us.e iranian missiles hit in iraq. do owe 234we know what the targ was? >> reporter: well, the question we were trying to answer was this question as to what exactly the iranians were trying to do with these strikes. whether they were trying to send a message for whether they were trying to actually kill people. create casual sits as some officials in the administration have suggested. we went to this very rural area about an hour and a half outside of the city where i am now irbil. we found the site where one of the missiles hit. local officials telling us there's nothing in that area, no u.s. presence. nothing to see at all really except a refugee camp just under a mile away. take a quick look at what we saw. >> this is where one of the missiles hit. you can see this area of impact. if you go through some of these small craters, you can also find some shrapnel from where the missile hit. >> reporter: of course, its entirely possible that the missile just did not go off where it was supp

clarissa ward is joining us from kiev. and clarissa, you have had a chance to speak where the t ukrainian foreign minister and what did he tell you? >> wolf, cnn has obtained new cctv footage that appears to show the dramatic and the extraordinary force of the impact as the ukrainian airliner slammed into the ground in teher teheran. you can see what appears to be the airplane essentially exploding into many, many pieces and scattering outm among a huge area, and we sat down with the ukrainian foreign minister and he is cautious and circumspect of saying cat gegorically what caused the crash, and could be pilot error or terrorism, but leaning towards the possibility that it is in fact an iranian missile that shot it down. this is after the conversations with the u.s. charge d affair here. is it fair to say that the evidence they presented to you was compelling? >> the evidence they presented to us is very, very solid, and what is missed in the picture is how they supported it be i the fa bsh by the facts on the ground, and

clarissa ward is with me now. so on iraq first, they are walking this fine line having now to really choose between its ally the united states or its neighbor iran. how do they make that choice? >> reporter: well, it is not an easy choice to make. i think most iraqi officials understand full well that they are absolutely dependent on the support and security of the u.s. but when they see what they would perceive as such a flagrant disregard to iraq satisfy trinity and for the sort of delicate diplomatic tight rope that iraq is walking on, trying to balance the interests of its different benefactors or sponsors, if you will, then they feel that they are being sort of painted into a corner whereby they have to do out with these bombastic political statements to the effect of it is time to have u.s. forces removed from iraq. as you mentioned, iraqi parliament did vote to start that process, but there are some technicalities whereby it likely wouldn't happen for quite some time because you have a caretaker government

we're going to begin on the ground with cnn's clarissa ward, our chief international correspondent. she's at the site where one of the iranian missiles hit in northern iraq. clarissa? >> that's right, john. as you can see, this is a very rural area. we have been talking to local security officials who tell us there's no real american presence here. there's no military base here. we've spoken to a shepherd who lives about 100 yards away who says that his house literally rocked from the force of the boom, that there were flames. his children were crying. but other than that house and a refugee camp less than a mile away, there really is nothing here that could make a target, if you like, for the iranians. this is the kind of remnants of the impact. you can see here we've got a bit of shrapnel around on the ground. a few craters here. i should say it's been raining a lot. the ground is very soft so it's difficult to get a sense of the actual impact. but it would appear that this is less about showing precision and power for the iranians than potentially about showing reach. this is one

clarissa ward said his killing marks an inflexion point for the region. leon panetta goes further and calls this the closest we've been to war with iran in four decades. today the president said this -- he said we took action last night to stop a war, did not take action to start the war. iran begs to differ calling the strike on soleimani an act of war, vowing revenge on the strike. and tehran has numerous ways for making life difficult for america and allies. we begin with the latest on the decision to take him down. cnn's boris sanchez joins us with that. what do we know about how the strike came about, the details of it? >> reporter: we're told it had been -- the president had been going over all potential options to respond to the strike by that iranian-backed militia. we're told there was a robust debate, president trump being confronted with the harsh realities of going to war with iran. we're told the president was questioned on his policy in the middle east and how he would retaliate to retaliation from iran. the president, we're told, was clearl

he tells cnn's clarissa ward that he is unhappy with the lack of security. >> we are unhappy when we that the locals were roaming around and picking at things, and touching things from the ground. >> reporter: iranian officials say that the black boxes have been damaged, but they will attempt to decipher them with ukrainian investigators on the ground, and they say it is a month or two to extract the data. the crash coming at a time of high tension following the u.s. drone strike that killed qassem soleimani, and the canadian prime minister saying that may have triggered the events that led to the crash. >> given the information that you have, how much responsibility does the united states bear for this tragedy? >> this is the evidence of the likely cause, but we need to have a full and complete and credible investigation. >> now, we may get some answers as soon as tomorrow. iran is saying that there is a meeting on saturday with the foreign investigators on the ground in iran to reveal the initial findings of the crash, and after that, according to state-run media the cause of the c

to talk about all of this, we have cnn political correspondent dana bash, bianna golodryga, and clarissa ward who is live at the site of where some of those iranian missiles hit in iraq. clarissa, we know your shot can go in and out so let's start with you. just tell us what you're seeing there. >> reporter: so as you can see probably, alisyn, we're basically in the middle of nowhere here. we've been talking to local security officials. they say there's no american presence here. there's no military camp here. and yet this is, right here, these sort of craters around me, the exact area where one of those iranian missiles hit and you can see all around there's fragments of slahrapnel. what was the target here? it's difficult to get a sense by looking around. there's a refugee camp about a mile away but that wouldn't have been a target. so it may have been that this was less about showing precision and power than it was about the iranians showing that they have reach. this is one of the furthest points that iranian missiles hit. the message being, perhaps, that it doesn't matter where you are i

. >> and now, to clarissa ward innin inner -- in irbil, and what is the response there in northern iraqit was a little bit spooky as we were landing in tonight. the airport was completely deserted and the vast majority of the flights have been canceled, because one of the missiles actually landed in the perimeter of the airport. it did not explode. there were no casualties reported, buter in -- nerve, because it is a very important location for the coalition forces. that fight is on a freeze, but nobody wants to see this a more dangerous hot spot. traditional lly irbil and the other spots when we arrived at the hotel we saw more than 100 u.s. military contractors who have been evacuated from baghdad and the air base also in the southern part of iraq, and the idea is to be that it was a safe place to come to, but with the last night's hits, that is now called into question as well, jake. >> and thank you, arwa damon and charissa ward and fred pleitgen, stay safe. ♪ ♪ whatever happens out there you have the hilton app. will the hilton app help us pick the starters? great question, no. but

joining me now, cnn chief international correspondent clarissa ward and mark kimmitt, former state and defense department official under george bush and former deputy director of coalition forces in iraq. thank you both so much for being here. general, the president has said an attack was imminent. that word has become key and there are legal ramifications to it. i have heard -- i have heard you say that you hear that soleimani was in baghdad to oversee an attack. what do you make then of mike pompeo? he's not offering further evidence of an imminent attack, he's focusing on things today that already happened and already are publicly known to make the case that something was imminent. >> well, i think there may be a concern about sources and methods being used, which is why they aren't being completely open with the intelligence. it is important to protect our sources and methods, we do that all the time. throughout war, throughout operations. it may be that as the gang of eight are briefed, more information will come out to them, more intelligence will come out to them. it is my great

. >>> just ahead, cnn's clarissa ward gets extraordinary access to one of the sites that an iranian missile hit there in iraq. we'll show you what she found and why is the trump administration trying to hide what it costs to protect the president and his family as they travel around the world. that's next. this is your car. you had a good run, but it's time to sell or trade it in, and you need to know what it's worth. with truecar, just enter your license plate and see your car's value in real time. sports package and low mileage? nice. incident with a shopping cart... not so nice. sunroof? real nice. within minutes, you'll have a true cash offer and you can head to a local certified dealership to cash out or trade in. enjoy a better way to sell or trade in your car with truecar. >>> it is certainly no secret that protecting the president costs money, so why is treasury secretary steve mnuchin trying to delay the release of secret service costs related to the president and his family's travel until after the 2020 election? a democratic presidential -- excuse me, congressional aide tells cnn

clarissa ward is our cnn chief international correspondent, and she's there now in ukraine.firm this report, you just spoke with the foreign minister. what did they say? >> reporter: yeah, we're starting to get a little bit of a better picture of the ukrainians' understanding of eventings. they're still being very cautious. they won't say what it is they believe actually caused the plane to crash, but they did say they have heard a recording of the cockpit conversation between the pilot and tehran airport. there were no reports of any danger, any problems with engines, anything of that nature. apparently the last words the pilot said to the tehran airport workers was all is peaceful, and everything is okay. as you mentioned, brooke, the foreign minister also offered some clarity on why it is that the wreckage of the plane had been moved from the site of the crash. ukrainians saying that that's basically because there had been rampant looting going on with locals picks through the debris, that that was very disturbing to the ukrainians, both from a morale point of view as wel

clarissa ward is out front from kyiv. >> reporter: a new video has emerged showing the moment the ukrainianthere's a wall of fire as flaming debris litters an iranian field. >> your security services have also posted on their website they're considering the possibility of terrorism? >> we're checking the internals of the plane as well trying to understand whether the bomb was plant in the plane itself. >> reporter: tonight ukrainian officials say they are reviewing data given to them by international partners including the united states but are not yet willing to say their commercial jet was shot down by an iranian missile. the ukrainians at this point are keeping all considerations on the table. >> we believe it's likely that plane was shot down by an iran yn missile. we're going to let the investigation play out before we make a final determination. it's important we get to the bottom of it. >> sweden, the uk, and canada also pointing the finger at iran. but the regime is doubling down, iran denying they played any role in the plane's demise and demanding the u.s. substantiate claims of a

. >> clarissa ward, out front from erbil tonight. now kim goddess join us.uthor of the book "black wave." general milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs is saying iran did intend to kill american troops. if that was the intent, if he's correct, does that alone change things now? >> it could, erin. and it's very interesting that general milley mentioned that. obviously general milley has access to all kinds of intelligence that we don't have access to. so, his assessment could very well be based on something that he's seen in that intelligence. it would change things because it's a matter of intent. if the iranians intended not to hit a target and they did in fact do it, the result would be very bad even if the intent was not to cause any damage. and the same thing if they intended to do something and they did it, it would also be bad. but regardless, intention does matter in this particular case. and that's where the intelligence picture is going to be critical in the assessment of this particular issue. >> i mean, david, this is the chairman of the joint

we have chief international correspondent clarissa ward and former adviser to the former adviser under president obama, samantha vinograd with us. mitch mcconnell said america is safer after the death of soleimani. just fact-check that for us and show us what retaliation could look like. >> brianna, there is no question that for the vast majority of shia muslims, they will not see the killing of qasem soleimani as contributing to their freedom, they will see it as an act of war, a declaration of war by the u.s. i think without a doubt, as you just heard, alex marquardt outlined there the tentacles of iran expand far beyond the sovereign country of iran itself, and whether it's u.s. servicemen in iraq or civilians in lebanon or military personnel who are deployed currently in syria, there is no question that u.s. military and civilian infrastructure and assets will be increasingly vulnerable as we wait to see what kind of a retaliation the iranians will decide to go with. and it seems pretty clear that there will be some kind of a retaliation. there has to be for killing such a sort of