Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

"Imminent Attack" Against U.S. Disrupted in Syria; Interview with Rear Admiral John Kirby; Five Arab Nations Join Fight Against ISIS; Attacks to Degrade ISIS' Ability to Command, Control, Resupply

Aired September 23, 2014 - 08:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news, the war against ISIS inside of Syria begins a powerful display by sea and by air, and pounding the terror group's home base and aiming to destroy its command and control structure and the U.S. not doing it alone. A historic shift, five Arab nations are participating in the strikes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is much bigger than anything we have seen so far.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Thwarted attack, the U.S. also hitting a group of al Qaeda veterans inside Syria saying a potential attack against the U.S. was stopped. How real was the threat? This as President Obama heads to the United Nations today. We have all angels covered this morning.

CUOMO: Good morning and welcome back to NEW DAY. It's Tuesday, September 23rd, 8:00 in the east. Kate is on maternity leave so we have Brianna Keilar joining us this morning.

We have big news for you. The war on ISIS is in full effect. U.S. airstrikes hitting the terror organization inside Syria for the first time. Take a look.

More than a dozen targets in the crosshairs, starting with the tomahawk missiles like you saw there from the sea, and then backup fighter jets in the air. The assault focusing on the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, that's been under ISIS control for nearly year. It's known as the home base, very important to strike there. Five Arab nations joining the U.S. attack, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

KEILAR: And perhaps even more pressing is that we have learned this morning an al Qaeda cell inside of Syria plotting what is an "imminent attack", and that is a quote, against the U.S. and Western interests. The U.S. targeting airstrikes at that cell in the north, and we will hear soon from President Obama, just in about two hours before he heads to New York for the U.N. General Assembly.

CUOMO: It is going to be important to see how the bombing is reacted to when he gets there.

Let's bring in Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr to start off the coverage.

The big headline, Barbara, has to be what we expected, bombing on ISIS, bombing on al Qaeda by the U.S.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: More information to come on that throughout the day, Chris, but a U.S. official tells me this entire campaign last night alone that the warplanes dropped more than 150 precision-guided munitions against ISIS and al Qaeda targets.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STARR (voice-over): Overnight, U.S. and partner nations carried out 14 intense strikes against ISIS strongholds in Raqqa, Syria, and other northern cities. The attacks destroying or damaging multiple targets, including training compounds, headquarters, and command and control facilities, and briefly knocking out power in the region.

U.S. forces launching tomahawk land attack missiles from the sea. Bombers, drones and fighter jets, continuing the assault by air. Including an F-22 Raptor, a new Air Force tactical plane that can conduct air to air and air to ground combat with near impunity.

The air strikes targeting key is positions, including the city of Raqqa, where they are essentially based. The attacks meant to degrade their ability to command and control, resupply and train, according to a U.S. military official.

Five Arab nations, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain joining in the fight, four of them helping attack by air, alongside U.S. war planes.

In January, ISIS turned Raqqa into their home base, creating a terrorist safe haven, the militants controlling the city, power, water, schools and banks.

Two countries not taking part in the attacks at present, Turkey, who had previously joined the global coalition against the terrorist group, and Syria itself. Then, there is this buried in the press release from the military, a report that an imminent attack against the U.S. was thwarted in Syria overnight, according to U.S. officials.

Eight air strikes were conducted by the U.S. west of Aleppo, against the terrorist group Khorasan, a network of seasoned Al Qaeda veterans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: And that video that we were just showing there, Barbara, is of the aftermath of that bombing, in the northwestern region of Syria. This is a big surprise specifically to the U.S. audience. We were hearing to hear about what would be done to ISIS. But this is an al Qaeda group.

What do you make of it? STARR: This we did know about, Chris, flat-out a surprise. The U.S. went against this group called Khorasan, a group of very seasoned al Qaeda veterans because a U.S. official tells me they had intelligence that this group was planning an attack against possibly a target in the United States or targets in Europe. They are not saying if they even knew what the target was but they had intelligence that they were in the final stages of planning an attack again, either against the U.S. homeland or in Europe. So, they went against Khorasan command and control facilities, against munitions and explosive plants, against some of their leadership targets.

We expect to hear more about this throughout the day, but they clearly felt that this group was very much a near term, an imminent threat against the U.S. interests, and so they went after them. And just how strange the night was, we are also able to confirm that the United States informed the Syrian regime of the intent to carry out strikes in Syria, it did not coordinate with the Syrian regime, no indication they gave them any other information other than the time, but the U.S. made sure that the regime of Bashar al Assad knew that the U.S. was coming -- Chris.

CUOMO: And to this point, Barbara, no proof that anything was done by Damascus, by the regime against or an opposition to the bombing that's happened so far. So, we'll will keep an eye on that.

Thank you very much, Barbara.

Brianna?

KEILAR: And this morning, President Obama will address the air strikes, will be talking in the 10:00 a.m. Eastern hour before he heads to New York, to the United Nations.

Let's get now to CNN's chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto.

You are live at the U.N. What do you expect for him to say?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a e remarkable moment, Brianna. And, of course, the U.N. is meant to be a peacemaking body, and the president is arriving here with the United States at war now in three countries, Iraq and Syria, of course, and continuing in Afghanistan, and in fact, asking many of the U.N. member nations to join that war and in fact, many did.

We now know that five Arab nations took part in the air strikes, and I'm told that four of the nations took part in what are kinetic strikes, in other words, they dropped bombs, they were not support flights, but four those countries, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Emirates and Bahrain taking part of that kinetic action.

This has been a real goal of this administration to make it an international fight against is and in particular the military element, and they succeeded, Brianna, in doing that, particularly bringing in those local and regional players, Arab countries taking the military action against another Arab country, and that's a heavy lift in the region, and that is the context for president's speech here at the U.N.

But it does not stop there. He is also going to ask for a binding resolution at the U.N. calling on countries to stop the flow of both foreign fighters and the money into Syria. This is a big problem. That's what gives them their fuel in effect, countries like Turkey, the key entry point. That's going to be something that's a real priority this week in New York.

KEILAR: Jim Sciutto for us at the Pentagon, thank you.

CUOMO: All right. Brianna, let's try to get some perspective on this from the Defense Department itself, and we will go to the Pentagon press secretary, Rear Admiral John Kirby.

It's very good to have you, Admiral. Thank you for being with us this morning. A busy morning for you, to be sure.

Let's start with what is certainly going to be a headline to Americans, this attack on al Qaeda, this offshoot group Khorasan. We understand that you have an ability to confirm the effectiveness of this strike. What were you able to achieve?

REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Well, we're still doing what we are calling battle damage assessment right now throughout the morning, Chris, but we are pretty sure that the strikes that were constructed against this group Khorasan, we're very, very effective.

And again, we will get more information throughout the morning, but early indications are that that 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 on the homeland.

CUOMO: Can you confirm this report that there five primary targets on individuals and that you got them?

KIRBY: Well, no, I can't at this point, but clearly, one of this things that we were trying to do and to disrupt their ability was to go after their leadership, and again, we will know more later today.

CUOMO: All right. So, now, the primary basis of the attack was supposed to be against ISIS, and what do you know so far about the effectiveness of those? We hear as many of 150 bombs were dropped?

KIRBY: More than 150 precision-guided munitions, and not a small point to make, that we were precise and careful about what we were dropping and making sure that we were hitting what we were aiming at.

All of the indications so far that is that we were very, very successful, but again, we're going to keep assessing throughout the day. We'll have more information later today about with a little more servitude, but we're very confident that these were successful strikes.

And I would like to add that it was not just us, but as Jim Sciutto reported, Arab nations that the participated in the strikes, and we believe their strikes were also very, very effective.

CUOMO: Did all five of the coalition members that were mentioned drop bombs, and what is the support role?

KIRBY: Well, le we will keep it to those countries to say what they did, but not all five participated in the airstrike. That said, all five them did participate in these military operations. We are grateful for that support, and it's real kudos to Central Command, General Austin, for the work that he did and his staff did in getting this coalition together and all of the planning and coordination to take place to do a multi international air operation is very, very sophisticate and complex, and he did a great job.

CUOMO: Are there more missions ongoing as we speak?

KIRBY: There's no missions right now. We don't talk about the future operations, as you know, Chris, so, we're -- but we're certainly -- the direction that we've been given from the commander in chief is very clear, we're going to continue to put pressure on ISIL in Iraq and in Syria. Again, I won't rule anything in or out at this point.

CUOMO: However, you are more open than the usual, and even your release was a full almost two pages which is very unusual for you guys. Why the effort to put out more information than usual here?

KIRBY: We believe it is important that the American people, and the world knows how seriously we are taking this threat of ISIL in the region. We have been talking about this for a while. We believe we owe that transparency to the very best ability that what we can.

The one thing we won't do is to telegraph our punches. We won't talk about things we're going to do in the future because, look, these are bad guys, and they adjust, they react, they change the way they behave based on the pressure we are putting on them, and we don't want to give them any advantage more than that.

CUOMO: And it's an important point, Admiral. What do you know about -- because we were talking about the timing and the U.N. General Assembly is going on now, why did it happened before. What does your intelligence tell you about quickly ISIS is deciding to get more difficult to hit because of its concern about attacks?

KIRBY: Well, we have been watching them change their behavior, the way they communicate, the way they organize themselves and operate inside Iraq, since we started doing strikes as you know earlier in August. This is the natural evolution of an enemy, an adaptive enemy. So, they have done that, and so, we knew that once strikes started in Syria, that we could expect them to change as well.

So, we'll watch and we'll see what happens here. But what I can tell you and assure the American people is we're not going to let up on the pressure. Though they may react, we are pretty good at reacting ourselves, and we're going to continue to pressure them.

CUOMO: Now, I understand the politics of the situation, but in terms of Damascus, the Syrian regime, we do know they were given indirect communication that, hey, this is going to be ongoing. Has there been any signal so far that they won't interfere, has there been any signal they may interfere?

KIRBY: Well, what I can tell you, Chris, is that there was no interference with our operations last night. No interaction, no communication, certainly no coordination with the Assad regime, and we don't anticipate and we don't plan on any coordination or communication from a military perspective going forward.

CUOMO: But you don't know of them taking trying to take out any counter strike or anything like that yet?

KIRBY: No. There was no interference or counterstrikes against our forces last night.

CUOMO: All right. We got a witness on the ground in Raqqa, again, what is seen as the ISIS stronghold. They say that the ISIS leadership is quickly integrating within the rest of the community. How do you deal with that?

KIRBY: Well, like I said, we're going to keep -- we're going to watch these guys very closely, we're going to monitor the situation. We'll react as they react. I won't get into the future operations or potential here.

But again, I will tell you that there is not a surprise here that they would react to the pressure they are put under, this is not unlike the kind of behavior we've seen inside of Iraq with these guys.

CUOMO: Now, we know a couple of the targets picked will support the troops fighting on the ground, some of the Kurds, the Peshmerga, up to the northeast of Syria, also on the Iraqi border.

There are reports of the Iraqis really beaten up several days ago, and trapped for several days and as many as 500 men were taken out, and pointing at the lack of air support.

How much more do we have to do in terms of getting it together, the United States getting it together to support those fighters on the ground?

KIRBY: We're going to continue to work closely with Iraqi security forces and the Peshmerga to support them on the ground, and as you have seen over the last couple of weeks, Chris, many of the strikes that we've been taken inside Iraq are offensive in nature. We're not just now defending territory, or helping them defend. We're actually going after ISIL in places that they are more are more freely operating, like south of Baghdad.

That coordination and that aggressive offensive action will continue to take place over days and weeks to come, and we are obviously in close contact with our Iraqi partners on the ground, in trying to help them as most as we can. That's why we have two joint operations centers, one in Baghdad and one up in Irbil.

CUOMO: Understood and respect it, and we are well aware that this is just the beginning, that you're putting out more information than usual because the message needs to be loud and clear, and you know there's complete willingness on our part to help report on that message and find out what's going on, so that everybody knows.

Please let us know how to help, Admiral.

KIRBY: Thanks, Chris. Appreciate it very much.

CUOMO: Our pleasure to have you on NEW DAY. So one of the aspects of this is the coalition, and it is called unprecedented. Why?

Well, so far, five Arab allies helping in the overnight strikes against ISIS in Syria. Are they the big shots? Are these the ones we want? Will it lead to more? As good as it gets?

Christiane Amanpour joins us next to discuss.

Plus, all eyes on President Obama as he addresses world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly. Is this his moment to make to make his mark on this war against ISIS? What's is he going to say about these airstrikes in Syria?

We have Wolf Blitzer live outside of the U.N. with the very latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: We are following breaking news this morning. We are seeing the first pictures of airstrikes lunch against ISIS targets in Syria overnight.

You can see the drama here yourself with the missiles launched from the sea and then by air and there are five Arab nations who are helping the U.S. with this military action, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar and the United Emirates all answering the call here, and plus, we expect to the hear from President Obama. He will be addressing the nation on the ISIS strike here in the 10:00 a.m. Eastern Hour. So, coming up here on the next couple of hours.

We are joined now by chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour.

Christiane, that is the list, five Arab nations who are helping the U.S. in this. How significant is this?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's very significant for mostly political reasons, because the military fight is being conducted by the United States, there's no doubt about it. And, in fact, only the United States can lead this kind of campaign, but very important, particularly to have Arab allies, so that it looks good, it looks like a coalition, and these people have now been brought into this fight against Sunni terrorists, these are Sunni nations mostly who have been brought into this fight.

We may hear from the president, as you say in his address what each Arab nation has given and we are not sure. It is very, very important. It's the first time that you have seen this array of the Arab firepower.

KEILAR: And now that the U.S. is invested here, the president obviously -- I mean, there is kind of no going back in a way, this is something that he is all-in. That's obviously what he said to these nations in order to get their support, so what does a victory look like?

AMANPOUR: Well, you said all-in, but we're going to wait and see. You know, one day of bombing does not a victory make, and the president has actually said that this would be a long fight.

But already in Iraq, the government there which is where the U.S. started these airstrikes and the Kurds who are the U.S. allies after all, and the Western allies have said, hang on a second, there is just not enough of these strikes. They are disrupting ISIS, but they are not forcing them to retreat. ISIS still controls big swathes of land and urban centers like Mosul. So, it is a big, big issue.

And military commanders who I've spoken to have said that unless there is a coherent coordinated long-term big strategy against the ISIS, it's not going to work. A few pin brick strikes won't do it. And the president has said in this address that this will be a long fight, and he has prepared the American people for that, then he's obviously not committed ground troops, but he has to have a ground force. Those in Syria presumably will be the Free Syrian Army.

Free Syrian Army has been fighting off two to three years, holding off Assad, holding off ISIS, was doing quite well given that they were not the given any sophisticated outside help, no big weapons, doing well until they were on the verge of big, big victories, and Iran and Hezbollah stepped in and supported the Assad regime. And now, where at this point we are in now.

KEILAR: Well, to that point, the Assad regime, and also getting a head's up that this was going to happen, do these air strikes help or hurt the Assad regime?

AMANPOUR: It's interesting to figure out how it's going to do, eventually they must hurt the Assad regime. You know, I'm going to be talking to Secretary Kerry tomorrow, and I hope you'll tell me exactly how, you know, they informed the Assad regime, because I have spoken to very senior U.S. ambassadors, Ambassador Crocker, Ambassador Ford, who are both ambassadors to Syria and Iraq in one case, they said that on no account must this bombing of ISIS or whatever at all look like it is supporting or helping in any way Assad.

We, the United States, cannot be aligned with anything that looks like it might give Assad any kind of hands up in this. And the Free Syrian Army have said, please don't expect us to fight Assad, we will keep trying to fight ISIS, but we are not going to take our eyes off the Assad front either.

KEILAR: But it hurts him because, I guess, in a way --

AMANPOUR: It hurts him because his country is being bombed by a load of foreign powers. KEILAR: And also, other countries who sort of let it remain the

status quo for fear of the greater evil being ISIS.

AMANPOUR: Yes, exactly. I mean, you know, the U.S. administration for all of the years of the Syrian war as you know, there is a big debate within. And the winning debate was that, let's stand back, because we actually don't have a dog in this fight, and whatever we do, we'll make it works. Well, that policy was obviously laid bare and naked by the rise of ISIS, because standing back allowed ISIS to flourish in Syria and Iraq, because pulling back all of the ISIS forces, and the residual forces in Iraq gave some cover there.

But mind you, this will not be solved unless there is a proper political resolution in Iraq and eventually hopefully in Syria, because it was political sectarian also that contributed to all of the Sunnis flocking to an ISIS.

KEILAR: And you will be speaking with the new prime minister of Iraq, and he is a huge piece of this. You said that he has to get those disaffected Sunnis to really kind of pull away from ISIS. Is he the man for the job?

AMANPOUR: He has to do it. If he doesn't do it, it's all lost. He has to do it. Unfortunately, the United States backed Nouri al-Maliki for a long, long time, and Nouri al-Maliki was a terrible sectarian, authoritarian, who created or at least contributed heavily to the political dysfunction that happened in Iraq, and therefore gave rise to the sympathy for ISIS, all of these Sunnis, these Baathists, these former Saddam Hussein military officials, tribal leaders rushing off, because they thought that they were under threat by sectarian Shiite- dominated government.

So, the new prime minister of Iraq has to stop that, has to hold the line there, that's his main challenge.

KEILAR: He has to do that, we'll see if he can. I am looking forward to the interview as well.

Christiane Amanpour, thank you so much for your insight.

AMANPOUR: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: We spent so much time focused on ISIS. You know, al Qaeda, it's largely flown under the radar, but this morning, the United States carried out a separate series of air strikes on an al Qaeda cell, thwarting an imminent threat to the U.S. Who is this group? How big of a threat are they?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Developments are coming fast and furious following the first night of U.S. airstrikes in Syria.

We've learned the U.S. did inform Syria of the pending strikes on their turf, but they're saying they didn't ask permission, they didn't coordinate anything, about the mission, itself. Who was it? What was the U.S. and five Arab allies, joining forces to strike ISIS strongholds.

The premium n this early coalition is on the Arabs, not necessarily big shots except for Saudi Arabia. You don't see Egypt, Turkey or the U.K. involved, at least not yet, the U.S. also striking in northern Syria. This is a big headline this morning, this was the U.S. alone. From the Pentagon, it says they successful targeted members of an al Qaeda se cell who posed -- listen to this -- an imminent threat to the West.

The president will address the strikes before departing to the United Nations. He's got a big address there today. So, what does this all mean? How did this play out? How will it play out going forward?

Let's bring in CNN counterterrorism analyst, Mr. Philip Mudd, and Hillary Mann Leverett, who served on the National Security Council for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and the author of "Going to Tehran".

Thank you very much for being with us.

Philip Mudd, what you have seen so far -- do you like it and why?

PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Not yet. The reason is that there's conversation including in the media and Washington about shock and awe, this is a mistaken way to proceed this operation.