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U.S. and Arab Allies Strike ISIS in Syria; U.S. Expands Mission, Targets al Qaeda Offshoot; Obama to Make Statement at 10AM ET

Aired September 23, 2014 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. I want to welcome our viewers from around the world for this special edition of NEWSROOM.

The war on ISIS escalates to a new level.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Carol. And I'm Wolf Blitzer, at the United Nations.

The United States assembling a coalition of Arab allies and together the U.S. and the Arab allies launching overnight strikes on ISIS targets in Syria. Not just in Iraq, but in Syria. It turns out ISIS is not the only target of this major new U.S.-led offensive.

COSTELLO: You're right about that, Wolf.

A senior U.S. military official tells CNN the first wave of the aerial bombardment was a flurry of tomahawk missiles launched from aircraft carriers, then fighter jets and other warplanes reigned down even more bombs.

The goal? Taking out ISIS' ability to command, train and resupply its militant fighters.

One surprising note, the U.S. is the only non-Arab member of this coalition. Sources tell CNN that five other countries took part of the operation -- Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Qatar all assisted and regionally the support is even greater as more countries recognize that the goal of ISIS is to topple secular governments and establish one sprawling Islamic state from Africa to the Middle East and beyond.

Now one of the biggest surprises, the U.S. expands the mission in its very first hours and goes it alone to target an al Qaeda offshoot operating in Syria. The Pentagon says the group, Khorasan, plotted an imminent attack against U.S. and Western interests. Now the U.S. military targeted Khorasan training camps, a weapons factory, a communications hub and command and control facilities within Syria -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Clearly, Carol, this is a major U.S.-led operation. We have our team of reporters and analysts across the globe. They are all standing by this morning to bring you the details of this major breaking story.

Let's start with CNN chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto. He's here with me at the United Nations.

A lot of activity is going to be taking place right now. What's the latest that you're hearing, Jim, as far as the success, the initial bomb damage assessment, for example, of this U.S.-led operations?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're expecting to hear that in about two hours' time, 11:00. There's going to be a briefing at the Pentagon when they share some of that. And this is something that they are still assessing, and I don't think you're going to get a complete picture even in a couple of hours. It's going to take them time to see what they were able to accomplish.

I was told last night when these strikes first started that this first day -- and this is just the first day, as you know, it's going to be a long campaign just as we've seen in Iraq, but that this first day was intended to be decisive, going after major targets, hard targets, a real show of force in the first day and they hope to have had some success including we know that they were targeting senior leadership of both ISIS and this group al-Khorasan. And that's something they're going to be looking to assess in the initial hours after the attacks.

BLITZER: And the fact that the U.S. convinced five Arab, Sunni Arab countries, to go ahead militarily and cooperate with the United States, participate in this operation, that's certainly going to help the president as he comes here to the United Nations seeking greater international support.

SCIUTTO: No question. An enormous success when you think about it, to get those local partners. And now just to participate in a support role, surveillance flights, refueling, perhaps basing, but we know that four of those five Arab nations -- Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain and, who am I missing there?

BLITZER: Qatar.

SCIUTTO: And Qatar -- well, Qatar did not, but at least four of them took part in kinetic airstrikes, dropped bombs.

This is a big ask of Arab nations to attack another Arab national alongside the U.S. particularly in light of America's troubled history there in the region. A lot of opposition to the Iraq war. But to get five local partners, four of them to take part in military action, that really does internationalize this.

BLITZER: Well, let's not forget, Bahrain is the home of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.

SCIUTTO: Right.

BLITZER: And there's a huge U.S. Naval presence in Bahrain.

I wasn't surprised that the UAE got involved. They're very close to the United States. The United Arab Emirates. I wasn't surprised even that Saudi Arabia so much got involved because Saudi Arabia, the UAE, they're basically on the same page as far as the U.S. position towards ISIS and Bashar al-Assad is concerned.

But Qatar, I was a bit surprised, even though Qatar and the UAE did join the U.S. in airstrikes against Gadhafi's targets in Libya. Qatar has played more of an ambivalent role, but they came through this particular time.

SCIUTTO: That's right. And Qatar has attracted a lot of criticism from other Arab allies for aiding and abetting some of these extremist groups there, allowing foreign fighters, allowing money to get to those groups. You hear that even from some of the partners who took part in these attack yesterday, from the UAE saying, hey, wait a second, what is Qatar doing here. They've been -- they've been helping these groups, so to see Qatar take part, that is a big step.

And this has been a big emphasis of the president for the UNGA week here. He wanted to internationalize this effort, both on the military side, but also on stopping the flow of foreign fighters and funding. And that's going to be something he's seeking later this week, is a binding resolution in the U.N. to get international help particularly from countries in the region to stop the flow of fighters and money, and at the top of that list, Turkey.

That's the key transit point into Syria for fighters and money. There's been a lot of criticism, a lot of it in private, from even U.S. officials that Turkey has not done its part. The U.S. is going to be looking for countries like Turkey and others to do their part now and stop that flow.

BLITZER: The administration, the Obama administration has been making the case no coordination, no collaboration with the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad or the Iranians for that matter, although we have learned that the Obama administration did give a head's up to the Syrian government right here at the United Nations, hey, the U.S. is about to do this, don't get any wild ideas about trying to stop U.S. warplanes or other warplanes from engaging in these targets against ISIS.

SCIUTTO: That's right. I spoke to a senior State Department official this morning who confirmed that the U.S. notified Syria in advance, that the official made the point of saying, as you said, no coordination and that they didn't ask for permission.

They just said basically we're going in, we're going to do this, but that is a level of communication between these governments that is substantial in light of the fact that, remember, President Obama called for the removal of Bashar al-Assad some three years ago at the start of the civil war. Bashar al-Assad is an American enemy and yet they reached out in advance to do this.

You mentioned Iran, as well. The -- U.S. officials have said no coordination with Iran against ISIS, certainly in Syria, but also in Iraq, and yet, you have the U.S. and Iran on the same side in fact doing many of the same things. Both of them arming, for instance, Kurdish rebels. So when you look at this international coalition that is forming here

and that the president is trying to further solidify here at the UNGA, you have these very interesting partners taking part in this alongside the U.S. and the West.

The ISIS is the one unifying factor in that region that pretty much everyone can agree that ISIS is a problem.

BLITZER: And I don't think anybody should get carried away, I'm sure ISIS and their targets suffered today but there's a long way to go. This is only just the beginning.

SCIUTTO: No question. And just the point I would make there. It's six weeks into the U.S. air campaign against ISIS in Iraq. And in Iraq --

BLITZER: Nearly 200 airstrikes.

SCIUTTO: Near 200 airstrikes, and in Iraq, you have a substantial ground force. You have Kurdish Peshmerga, 120,000, some 200,000 Iraqi forces. And even at the end of those six weeks, those forces have not gained back any ground from ISIS. They have stopped ISIS' advance, but they haven't gained back that ground, so that gives you an indicator of how long the U.S. and its partners left to commit itself to Syria.

BLITZER: All right. Don't go too far away.

Carol, Jim and I are going to stay here at the United Nations. We're getting ready, of course, to hear the president of the United States, but let me throw it back to you.

This new phase of the war, a little bit of shock and awe today, but it's only just beginning.

COSTELLO: Yes. A note about the president, of course, he's about to fly to New York for the United -- to meet with the United Nations. But before he leaves Washington, he is expected to make a statement on what's happening within Syria. Of course, we'll bring that statement to you live.

But let's talk now more about the Khorasan group. As we said, the U.S. targeted this group within Syria without the help of its Arab allies. Khorasan's existence was only publicly acknowledged last week when the U.S. director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, said it was operating in both Iraq and Syria, with a focus on exporting terror to the West, saying, quote, "There is potentially yet another threats to the homeland. Yes."

So let's talk more about this al Qaeda offshoot, the Khorasan Group, which sounds kind of like a law firm, right? The question is, why haven't we heard more about this group?

Well, we sort of did but the group wasn't exactly named. This is the group that was supposedly making bombs out of toothpaste tubes and clothing that is liquid explosives. The idea, to get on board an airplane undetected.

Peter Neumann is with the Department of War Studies at Kings College in London. He's written five books on terrorism. He joins us now.

Good morning, Peter.

PETER NEUMANN, WAR STUDIES DEPARTMENT HEAD, KING'S COLLEGE: Good morning.

COSTELLO: It is interesting to me that CentCom buried the lead. They put out this press release and in the sixth paragraph of this press release, it said, "Separately, the United States has also taken action to disrupt the imminent attack plotting against the United States and Western interests conducted by a network of seasoned al Qaeda veterans, sometimes referred to as the Khorasan Group."

So it's buried in this press release. I don't know why because we haven't had a chance to ask CentCom that question. But why are we just learning about this now?

NEUMANN: Well, the Khorasan Group, as the press release says, is a group of very senior operatives that are essentially part of al Qaeda. The problem is that until recently, those senior operatives were mostly based in the tribal areas of Pakistan where the leadership of al Qaeda is. They have migrated over into Syria because they know that's where the action is, that's -- that's where they need to be present.

They used to be part of a group called Jabhat al-Nusra which was the official al Qaeda affiliate and it now seems that they've split from that group and are running their own show. So they are the splinter of a splinter, if you want. I know it's very complicated, but they are essentially al Qaeda and they are very much focused on attacking the West and because they are senior operatives, they do bring the expertise of al Qaeda from years if not decades of attacking the West, and that's why they are particularly dangerous.

COSTELLO: So they've supposedly set up shop in Syria. I mean, how large is this group?

NEUMANN: It's very difficult to say. At this point, I wouldn't believe that they have more than perhaps 100 members. But it's really not about the numbers. It's about the expertise they bring to the table because these guys draw on the entire international network of al Qaeda, including al Qaeda in Yemen, which has tried almost successfully to attack America on numerous occasions including the Christmas Day bombing 2009, the UPS bomb in 2010, I think, and on a number of other occasions.

So they are the best of the best in terms of bomb making, in terms of concealing things, and if they can now draw on the foreign fighters that are present in Syria, that would indeed be an explosive combination.

COSTELLO: The other odd thing, and I just want to run this by you. The only video posted by one of the Boston marathon bombers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, he posted it on his YouTube page, it was about the emergence of the black flags from the promised land of Khorasan. What do you make of that possible connection?

NEUMANN: Well, the connection exists insofar as jihadists referred to the area of Central Asia where the leadership of al Qaeda is based in Khorasan. It includes Pakistan, it includes Uzbekistan, Central Asian Countries, so the reference to Khorasan in the Boston bomber's video is to that particular piece of land, not to any particular group. The group wasn't named Khorasan Group until very recently. The Boston bombers would not have known about that.

COSTELLO: And the final question for you, CentCom said the Khorasan Group recruits Westerners and -- I'm sorry, I want to ask you this question instead. I'm sorry about that.

So the U.S. struck the Khorasan Group alone without its Arab allies, why?

NEUMANN: Because that group, in addition to ISIS, represents perhaps the most imminent threat against the West and particularly against the American home land. ISIS is a danger because it's so powerful, it's so present in the region, it has so many fighters, but it is so busy in the region that attacks on the U.S. homeland are perhaps not an imminent priority whereas Khorasan and al Qaeda which are not a part of ISIS, for them attacks on the West are a priority.

They do have the expertise and they are much smaller than ISIS, they have to be dealt with, because in the short term at least, they are the greatest threat to the U.S. homeland.

COSTELLO: All right. Peter Neumann, thank you so much for your insight. I appreciate it as always.

NEUMANN: Thank you.

COSTELLO: So the United States -- you're welcome.

So the United States and its Arab allies are conducting a war on terror from the air, not on the ground. Is that enough to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIS?

Christiane Amanpour, CNN's chief international correspondent, and Lt. Col. Rick Francona, our military analyst and a former military attache in Syria, both join us now.

Welcome.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good to be here.

COSTELLO: OK. So, Christiane, it seems like we've been down this road before and we haven't won. What makes this different?

AMANPOUR: Well, I think we don't know what the outcome is going to be. But most certainly and I'm sure that the lieutenant colonel will agree, doing nothing for the last three years has brought us here. The vacuum that's been created by a non-intervention policy is what has allowed Syria to flourish with these ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, as Peter Neumann said, now Khorasan. And withdrawing the residual -- even a residual force from Iraq is what allowed the dysfunctional politics there to become a national security threat and the rise of ISIS there.

I'm fascinated by what Neumann said about Khorasan versus ISIS, et cetera. We know that al Qaeda is competing still for relevance. ISIS, because it captured territory, because it's been successful in bringing some 15,000 foreign fighters, suddenly with the brutal beheadings was getting the lion's share of the attention and the recruiting and the establishment as the new terrorist, you know, bully on the block.

And so al Qaeda is trying to compete again. It's really fascinating that.

COSTELLO: Well, is there a chance they'll begin fighting among themselves?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it could be, because Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS do not get along. And so, we could see them, each one trying to outdo the other, who could be the worse of the worse. And, you know, Khorasan is part of the prophet, and we have been hearing this for years and years, the black flags of Khorasan, the unstoppable army to march to Jerusalem.

So, you know, they wrap themselves in that mantra, and they are trying to the out-Islam the other radical Muslims.

COSTELLO: Well, let's talk about the war that's currently going on within Syria, and that's definitely what it is. So, we have Arab allies this time around, pretty impressive group, five Arab countries.

FRANCONA: Yes, I think this is a really, I think this is a real success story for the administration. I was very skeptical and you and I have talked about this, about putting together, a coalition that included Arabs willing to put commit military force.

Normally, they'll commit moral support, money, basing rights and all that, but they actually put aircraft in the air and dropped bombs on Syria. This is a real success story.

COSTELLO: And does that make it different, Christiane?

AMANPOUR: I think it makes it different, but let's not forget, that all of these nations want to see the end of Assad, number one, and all of them have been angry of the United States for not having taken the fight to Assad, particularly last year, when there was a red line, that wasn't a red line anymore. So, Saudi Arabia, the emirates, Qatar, all of these countries are pretty angry about that, and all of them want to see an end to what could be a threat to them, which is this kind of militancy.

But, I agree with Lieutenant Colonel, that it is extraordinary to see these allies. FRANCONA: And you see, they get two things out of this, an end of ISIS, which is a threat to them, and they can remove the regime of Bashar al Assad, and that also gives them a leg-up in their constant competition with the Iranians.

COSTELLO: OK. So, a final question about Bashar al Assad. He is a military. He has a military, is he all-in with this? Do we know?

AMANPOUR: No, no.

COSTELLO: So, is the United States military concerned he may fire --

AMANPOUR: May benefit from it?

No, not fire. We don't think he has that kind of capability, but can he benefit from them taking out ISIS? Potentially, although it's even more complicated, because he was kind of allowing ISIS to be his shock troops against the moderate Syrian army that the West is now trying to back. The Free Syrian Army was pushing back Assad and ISIS, and so, you know, this actually may help him or may hurt him.

But one of the things that the U.S. is very scared about is that unlike 9/11 when terrorists had to come over here and nefariously get visas by all sorts of different fake and the underhanded ways, these people do not. They are American citizens, European citizens, et cetera, all they have to do is buy a plane ticket and come back to the United States or Europe and create mayhem.

FRANCONA: This is really smart for al Qaeda to do this, because what they do is to bring the bomb makers to the place where the delivery systems are already there. Outfit the delivery system, that's an American citizen with the passport, and send him on his way.

COSTELLO: We're going to talk much more about this throughout the day on CNN.

Christiane Amanpour, you will be back. Lieutenant General Rick Francona, you, too. Thanks so much.

Still to come on the NEWSROOM: Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE, Arab nations join the U.S. war on ISIS in Syria today, but why not Britain?

We are live in London with answers, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Early indications are, we hit what we were aiming at, and we greatly disrupted this group's ability to continue the plot and planning that they were doing for attacks either in Europe or here in on the homeland.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Can you confirm this report that there were five primary targets, individuals, and that you got them? KIRBY: Well, no, I can't actually at this point. But, clearly, one

of the things that we were trying to do is to disrupt the ability was to go after their leadership, and again, we'll know more a little bit later today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Continuing with the breaking story this hour, the U.S. and Arab allies striking ISIS targets in Syria, here's what we know. The strikes began with tomahawk land attack missiles launched from the U.S. ships. Those attacks followed by air attacks on buildings and hard targets trained to take out ISIS command and control and supply facilities. Five Arab countries joined the U.S. in attack, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan and Qatar. Notably missing, Great Britain.

President Obama is due to speak from the White House in the next hour. Of course, we'll carry the president's remarks live, but we want to head to the United Nations and Wolf Blitzer.

Hi, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Carol.

After the president delivers his remarks at the White House, he's going to get ready to leave Washington, come here to New York, scheduled to address the United Nations general assembly tomorrow morning, and then he will preside over a special session of the U.N. Security Council tomorrow afternoon.

He's going to be making it clear in his remarks we're told what the U.S. objective are, why the U.S. went ahead with these five Arab countries to go ahead and launch these air attacks against ISIS's targets now in Syria, for the first time. This is a new phase in President Obama's war against terrorism. Obviously, new face in the war, given the fact that over the past several weeks, the U.S. has launched air strikes in Iraq. But only now, he has started to do so in Syria.

Let's go to our White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski. She's standing by.

Michelle, what do we know about the president? I take it he's going to be speaking on the South Lawn of the White House, is that right?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right, at 10:00, and he has decided to give an address on this important occasion. We expect him to reaffirm America's commitment to what they have stated the goal is. This administration saying to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIS.

We also expect him to highlight the successes of this additional phase so far. Not sure how much detail we are going to get from him, and keep in mind that we are waiting for the Pentagon briefing this afternoon, and we expect him to highlight what the administration sees as the success of building this coalition, to many unexpected that it came together so quickly.

Because remember, over the last several weeks, the persistent question has been, OK, you want to build the coalition, well, where are they now? Even as the U.S. is conducting air strikes in Iraq, it has been pretty much only the U.S. up until the point that France jumped in, a matter of days ago.

But the administration keeps, keeps emphasizing the importance of the region in this effort, ongoing. That they need to solve their own problems first of all in terms of security, and that also, that ISIS poses a greater threat to the people of that region than even it does to the United States. So, where are they? Where have they been?

Well, the administration just in the last week said, keep in mind, we're going to see more countries step up. We're going to see Arab countries involve and now, here we are. They were able to pull it together the, and see other countries not only able but willing to step up last night, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations here, Michelle, Samantha Power, she said that Sunday, if the U.S. does launch airstrikes against targets inside Syria, ISIS targets, there would be others, including Arab countries who would join in that military activity, and she turn out to be absolutely right, Samantha Power. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, so he lives, when does he leave Washington for the United Nations, Michelle?

KOSINSKI: He'll leave shortly after, at 10:20 is the scheduled time. We will see and if this all runs according the schedule.

So, if he is coming out at 10:00, we expect less than a 20-minute address and we don't at this moment expect him to take questions. Hopefully more detail, but we also expect him to sort of give us a shape to the mission so far, and what it accomplished, but also to say that this is going to be ongoing, and I know that we have been talking about this, this morning. In fact, even the way the White House framed the address that the president is about to give, he said that he would talk about the counterterrorism strategy.

Again, they are saying that, you know, others may call it a war, but they see it as a sustained counterterrorism strategy that is going to take a long time, Wolf.

BLITZER: Certainly looks like a war, feels like a war, and sounds like a war, and you have planes dropping sophisticated bombs has all of the indications of a war to me.

Michelle, do we know if the president made phone calls to any of the countries involved? Any of the allies or the world leaders in advance? Has the White House released information on that yet?

KOSINSKI: You know, we have not seen any readouts and it is clear that what the White House. It's clear that what they wanted to do from the start is to let the initial information come from the Pentagon and any detail they kept referring to us the Department of Defense for additional details. We know though that the president spoke to members of Congress. We

know that members of Congress were notified leading up to the strikes beginning last night.

BLITZER: Michelle Kosinski at the White House, we will stand by to hear the president at the top of the hour and hear what he has to say.

BLITZER: Carol, I have to tell you that the president did not believe he need congressional authorization, but when Congress voted last week to go ahead to support arming and training moderate Syrian rebels, that was additional political backing that he thought that he needed, but he went ahead, and did it even though there was no formal new legislation go ahead, authorizing a new stage in this war -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Wolf, thanks so much.

Britain is now taking part of airstrikes over Syria, despite threats to its own citizens and a homegrown terrorism threat far worse than the United States.

We have team coverage across the region. Nic Robertson is in London. Anna Coren is in Irbil, Iraq. And Arwa Damon is on the border between Turkey and Syria.

But I do want to start with you. Nic, why didn't the U.K. take part in this mission?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Quite simply, David Cameron doesn't have the political backing to get in airstrikes in Syria. He's tweeted that he does support today, that he does support the United States. The ministry of defense has come out here and said they support the United States and this coalition of the Arab allies and the strikes against ISIS.

David Cameron has also said that the while he is in New York this week attending the UNGA, that he will be having discussions with others about what more Britain can do, and what more other countries can do to support this operation, but he does not have the political capital at the moment in Britain to go this alone, and to say that we are going to join.

Famously, if you will, in August last year, trying to get some political support for air strikes against Syria, then, because of the chemical weapons that were used, he failed then. So, he seems to be right now very cautious, Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. And by other countries at the United Nations that the prime minister may meet with, includes Iran, correct?

ROBERTSON: It does. And part of that --

COSTELLO: Not officially meet, right?

ROBERTSON: That is official. We understand from 10 Downing Street, that he will meet with the president of Iran, and ISIS will be and tackling the threat of ISIS will be one of the issues.