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IDF: Another Wave Of Missiles Launched Toward Israel; IDF: "All of Israel Is Under Fire" From Iran; Iran Says It Has Attacked "Dozens Of Targets, Military Centers And Air Bases" In Israel; Israel Emergency Services: 7 Injured After Iranian Strike; Israeli Defense Minister: Iran Will "Pay A Very Heavy Price" for Striking Civilian Population Centers. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired June 13, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And we're following our breaking news from the Middle East. Moments ago, the Israeli military saying that all of Israel is under fire as Iran launches waves of counter-strikes.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Large explosions rocking parts of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the last hour, as some rockets appear to have breached Israel's Iron Dome. Iran says it's attacked dozens of targets, military centers, and air bases. Residential buildings also appear to have been hit. And there are reports of multiple injuries, at least seven as of this moment. Israeli defense forces say a new wave of missiles is now incoming.

KEILAR: Let's go right now to CNN's Jerusalem Bureau Chief, Oren Liebermann, who is in a bomb shelter in Jerusalem.

Oren, what's the latest?

Oren, can you hear us?

All right, we have been having a little - he's in a bomb shelter, so that's some of the connectivity issues that we're having, understandably.

Let's go to Jeremy Diamond, who has been covering the region since October 7. And he is actually, though not in the region at this moment, but watching as we are what is happening.

Jeremy, give us a sense of the latest of the situation there on the ground.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you can see from those pictures from moments ago in Tel Aviv, what seems to be a residential building in Tel Aviv was struck. We do know that at this hour, there are a number of injuries as a result of some of these strikes, according to Magen David Adom, which is effectively Israel's emergency response services.

There are several injuries at this stage, individuals who are in moderate condition, as well as some who were lightly wounded. We know that we were watching as dozens of Iranian missiles were indeed raining down, not just on Tel Aviv, but also on northern and southern Israel, in what seems to be a very significant retaliatory attack by the Iranians.

And indeed, Israeli officials who I've been speaking to over the last few days have been anticipating that this would be an unprecedented Iranian response, something more significant than what we saw back in October when Iran fired some 200 ballistic missiles, as well as drones, towards Israel. In that instance, you did also have a number of missiles that actually struck inside of Israel. Some of those struck just north of Tel Aviv, very close to the Israeli intelligence headquarters of the Mossad, as well as the Shin Bet. But for the most part, they landed in the middle of roads, on medians, and did not cause any serious injuries or fatalities.

We are now looking at a picture where we already have several confirmed injuries, according to Magen David Adom, and these missiles are continuing to come in.

And so, we can imagine that this will continue to worsen right now. I've been speaking to people who are in Tel Aviv, who are in Jerusalem, who are huddling in bomb shelters. The impact of at least one of those missiles certainly shook buildings for quite a range inside of Tel Aviv. And so, people are, indeed, very frightened at this hour, many of them inside of their bomb shelters, awaiting what may come next.

SANCHEZ: And we were just hearing from Israeli officials speaking to CNN, confirming that hundreds of ballistic missiles are being fired in the direction of Israel. One Israeli official telling CNN, quote, "Iran will pay a heavy price for firing on population centers." I think we've re-established our connection to CNN's Jerusalem Bureau Chief, Oren Liebermann, who's in a bomb shelter right now.

Oren, what are you learning?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're waiting for more information on what appears to be another round of missiles. As you can imagine, cell phone service in bomb shelters is not as good as it is outside of the bomb shelters. So, I apologize if our signal cuts out again as we wait on more updates here.

So far, we are aware, and the Israeli military, the IDF, has said there have been two rounds, each of dozens of incoming ballistic missiles and we have seen that play out.

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We have seen interceptions, damage on the ground, to buildings, to cars, in our first reports of injuries coming in over the course of the past 10 to 15 minutes or so. And now we're on the lookout to see if there is another wave of ballistic missiles incoming. The order from Home Front Command remains to stay in shelters. And

this is where we've been over much of the past hour, frankly. Us, like much of the rest of the country, as we saw the red alerts lighting up, pretty much from all the way south to all the way north, and including in the West Bank. We have seen the live pictures from Tel Aviv. That's where we have some live camera setups. And we've seen missiles intercepts there. But it's far beyond that, going all the way up to the north and some of the more populated areas up there, and then all the way south down to major cities like Be'er Sheva.

So, what you're seeing here, me and my team here in a bomb shelter, is something you're seeing play out across the country as we wait to see how many rounds of missiles there are incoming, what are the results of those as we've gotten our first reports of seven injuries, I think the number now is. And we'll see how that number goes over the course of the coming hours.

And then, frankly, are there more waves here? And is this a long night in bomb shelters for potentially the entire country here?

As the retaliatory actions that Israel had warned about some close to 19 hours ago at this point when Israel's attack on Iran began, that retaliation now just beginning in earnest here.

KEILAR: All right, Oren Liebermann, live for us from Jerusalem. Thank you so much. And you are witnessing first responders there in Tel Aviv as they're responding to these Iranian counter-strikes, not just in Tel Aviv, but all around the country after Israel launched an unprecedented series of strikes in Iran here in the last day, taking out many top military leaders and key military assets as well, and nuclear assets.

Jake Tapper will pick up our coverage right now of what we're watching there in Israel.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Thank you so much, Brianna Keilar, so let's go - thank you so much, Brianna. Let's go to the White House right now. CNN Senior White House Correspondent Kristen Holmes joins us. And Kristen, obviously, we were told originally that President Trump was urging Prime Minister Netanyahu against the strikes. He now says he thinks that this could get Iran to the negotiating table. There are theories out there, and there is some reporting even, that this was part of a deception campaign by President Trump, that Israeli officials told Barak Ravid of Axios that Trump was behind these strikes all the time, but he was just trying to lull Iran into a false sense of security. What do we know about that?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, whether or not this was some kind of deception campaign, I can't answer that on the part of Donald Trump. But I can tell you that White House officials did know these strikes were coming yesterday. And at the same time that they were preparing for this likely strikes to occur, Donald Trump was posting on Truth Social that he has encouraged everyone in his administration to seek a diplomatic resolution with Iran, and essentially saying that he was against any kind of non- diplomatic action. At the time, we obviously read that to be that he knew the strikes

were coming, and he was pushing that narrative to push back on Israel. Since then, we have learned that Donald Trump was aware - that Donald Trump and Netanyahu spoke multiple times before those strikes, giving those words a little bit of a different meaning.

So, whether or not it was a deception campaign to make Iran feel safe, or whether or not it was Donald Trump, that kind of deception, knowing and working with Netanyahu to put those out there, and then also at the same time saying he was seeking a diplomatic resolution, that is unclear.

But what we are told is that Netanyahu and Trump are going to speak again today, that they have been in regular contact. And there is a belief among many in the administration that this is going to help with the Iranian negotiations. One of the things we have to really put this in the context of was those six talks, which were scheduled to be in Oman with Steve Witkoff, the Middle Eastern envoy, and the Iranians. They had been in touch about that, but we weren't getting signs from the White House and from administration officials that they were unclear of what was actually going to come to the table, in terms of what Iran was going to bring to the table.

And just looking at where this landed, we know that there was a proposal that went to the Iranians from the United States that essentially said that they could enrich some uranium. Short after that, Donald Trump had posted online that could not, there was going to be no deal in which they can enrich any uranium at all.

That is significant here, because that threw these talks into kind of a disarray. It was unclear what proposals were where, and what they were going to talk about on Sunday. So, there is a belief among some of the administration that now they do have a bargaining chip.

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And you can see that a little bit in Donald Trump's rhetoric today. He is in a much different position than they were last night. And Jake, it was so striking to see the only response from the administration as a whole be from Marco Rubio. That is not something Donald Trump often allows, to have someone else be the face of the administration's response.

And today, you're seeing him take a different tone. The tone is, Iran should come to the negotiating table or else. And he told Dana at one point, they should make a deal before it's too late. He said online, they had chance after chance after chance.

So clearly now, they are in a separate part of this in terms of the U.S. engagement, which is pushing Iran to the negotiating table. Whether or not they can actually get them there on Sunday, that remains to be seen. There's a lot of doubt around whether or not these are going to continue. But you can see here from the administration, and we're hearing from these officials, they believe that this is going to help them. TAPPER: All right, fascinating stuff. CNN Military Analyst and retired

colonel, Cedric Leighton is with me here. And Cedric, we have some new images, I think, if we can bring those up, from the streets of Tehran. There previously images were - images there. These are images of celebration. They are jubilant to hear of the successful strikes by Iran against Israel.

Israel, obviously, having engaged in a strike against the military leadership of Iran and Iran's nuclear weapons program last night. So, we are involved in - we are watching a war taking place. It's a question of how long it will last and how widespread it will get.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, absolutely, Jake. And, you know, as we see these celebratory images from Tehran, that's kind of, unfortunately, a typical aspect of what the Iranians do when these kinds of events occur, because they believe that they've achieved some degree of success attacking these Israeli targets.

But the fact of the matter is that the Israelis have achieved major success when it comes to going after the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the Iranian military, the nuclear program, and not just the people involved, but also the installations involved. And that is something where, you know, right now what we're seeing is basically both sides lobbying missiles against each other and, you know, and doing those kinds of things.

But what is really important here is that the Israelis achieved a great deal of surprise, a great deal of tactical surprise. And that is going to really put the Iranians on the back foot. They are doing some things. They're causing some damage here with their missiles against the Israelis. But their problem is that they're going to have to sustain that kind of an operation. And the question is, can they do that and do it in a way that will allow them to achieve those kinds of goals that they have, which is basically to combat the Israeli efforts against them.

They have not achieved those goals yet. It may take a while for them to do that, if they can ever do that.

TAPPER: So, Israel Emergency Services are reporting that at least seven in Israel have been injured or wounded after the Iranian strike.

Cedric - Col. Leighton, one of the things I wonder about, and it's still early yet, but do we have any idea of how successful either the Israeli strikes against Iran or, in this very short period of time, the Iranian strikes against Israel have been in terms of who they've taken out, in terms of Israel taking out top generals of the Iranian forces, and also their attempt to destroy the Iranian nuclear weapons program?

LEIGHTON: So, as far as them being - the Israelis being able to take out the Iranians, we do know quite a bit, because the Iranians have actually confirmed most, if not all, of the Israeli reports. And that's significant. Basically, you're talking about the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards eliminated.

TAPPER: And that's the person, by the way, that replaced General Soleimani.

LEIGHTON: Soleimani, right.

TAPPER: ... who President Trump took out in the first term.

LEIGHTON: That's correct, exactly, back in January of 2020. And that is the kind of thing that, you know, is a - very significant thing. Then you also have the head of the military gone, basically the equivalent of our chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

And then you have the head of the emergency services, head of the air and space forces of the Iranians. So, this top tier of military leadership is basically gone. So, in terms of a battle damage assessment, as we would call it in the military, that is significant. It is basically confirmed.

So, leadership cadre in the military, on the Iranian side, eliminated.

TAPPER: What about the nuclear weapons program? Because obviously a lot of that is fortified underground.

LEIGHTON: Exactly. So now we know a little bit less. Because it's a lot harder to get proper battle damage assessments out of something like this. Now, the Israelis are reporting that they were able to achieve some degree of success against the Natanz facility. If that bears out with further reporting and further intelligence analysis, that could be very significant.

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Because one of the main targets that the Israelis went after was the centrifuges that are at Natanz. That's part of the enrichment process, or potentially part of the enrichment process. Those are the kinds of things that make a difference when it comes to creating a nuclear program. And really could result in a big setback to the Iranian nuclear program, their weaponization program.

TAPPER: Now, is it true that the Israelis do not have the military hardware they would need in order to truly destroy the underground nuclear weapons program that is in Natanz or any other facility?

LEIGHTON: Yes, so it depends on the facility. Natanz, they can probably do it with what they have. And the Israelis will tell you that they have the capability to destroy at least some of these. And it depends on which one you talk to. But basically, they have limited capabilities there.

When it comes to more deeply buried areas, like the Fordow place, that facility is much further underground and would require basically what amounts to a bunker buster bomb. The Israelis have some bunker busters. But what you want is something like the massive ordnance penetrator. That type of bomb can only be delivered by a weapon like the B-2, the American bomber.

The Israelis do not have B-2s. They have F-15s, F-16s, and F-35s. They don't have bombers in the modern sense of that word. So that is what you're looking at the ...

TAPPER: What is the difference? I mean, for people listening, most of us do not have a really - a real understanding of the difference between a B-2 and an F-15.

LEIGHTON: Right, so an F-15 is an aircraft that is a fighter jet. It is designed to fly nimbly, agilely, very quickly. And it can achieve basically the idea to suppress enemy air defenses and to go after pinpoint targets, not really big targets.

TAPPER: So, a B-2 is a big plane.

LEIGHTON: It's a big plane, and it has a lot of capability. In other words, it has a lot more bombs on it. And it can carry - it has a big payload that can carry a lot of ordnance. And that ordnance can then be brought to bear in a very concentrated area. And that would be needed to destroy something that is a hardened target, a deeply buried target, and one where the Iranians have taken a lot of care when they built them to create the kind of building or underground structure that was very difficult to destroy.

TAPPER: All right, stick around. I have lots more questions for you. CNN Senior International Correspondent Fred Pleitgen joins us now.

Fred, you are hearing from senior Iranian officials after this counterattack of Iran against Israel. What are they telling you?

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Jake. Yes, senior Iranian officials just messaged me sort of a statement saying, and I'm paraphrasing here a little bit, saying the Iranian armed forces operations against what they call the Zionist regime positions will continue. So, the Iranians are saying what's going on right now, this is not the end of it.

This regime, as they put it, is facing a dark night ahead. Obviously, the Iranians insinuating that there's more strikes to come, and they could take the entire night. The Iranians also, once again, the source stating the claim that - they claim that an Israeli jet or several Israeli jets were shot down. Obviously, impossible to independently verify all that. But they also say that several drones and other projectiles were shot down by their air defense forces as well.

So, the Iranians seemingly right now in more of a bullish mode than they were before, making some stronger statements. This, of course, also comes, Jake, after Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, came out in a televised address to the nation and also said that there would be severe strikes, punishment strikes, as he put it, against the Israelis, saying that there would be no leniency.

So, the Iranians now saying that they have launched their major counterattack. Again, it's impossible to say how long that is going to take, how intensive that is going to be, how extensive it is going to be. Of course, what we are hearing from the Iranians is that they say that they are targeting military installations and airfields. And of course, that could go on for an extended period of time. The Iranians had been saying that they do have the missiles at their disposal that they would need for something like that.

One of the things, though, that we have to keep in mind, that I think is very important, and Cedric was just talking about some of the people in Iran's military leadership who were eliminated by the Israelis over the course since the early morning hours, since the Israelis started their campaign. One of the people to look at is Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who is the head of Iran's aerospace forces.

And, you know, over the past couple of months, Jake, I've been taking a look at Iran's missile program. I've been with the Revolutionary Guard to look at some of their missiles with senior Iranian generals. And they kept saying that Ali Hajizadeh is basically the father of Iran's missile program, the drone program, and also their air defenses as well. So that is certainly a significant loss for the Iranians. But the Iranians, of course, do have the propensity to replenish that.

But the missile program specifically is seen by the Iranians as sort of being the great equalizer that they have at their disposal. They decided a long time ago that because of the sanctions against them, it was impossible for them to develop, for instance, jet fighters that could go toe-to-toe with things that the Americans and the Israelis have. So, they invested heavily in their missile program. And Ali Hajizadeh was the head of that and also of the development of that.

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And if you look at the arsenal, I got to look at some of those missiles, they do have a lot of missiles at their disposal that are very powerful, some of them packing a payload of around 1,500 pounds that, of course, can cause significant damage. And that is one thing that the Iranians now say they are going to start unleashing, to what extent, is certainly something that we'll probably see in the coming hours, Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Fred Pleitgen, thanks so much. And I just want to read this statement that the Defense Minister of Israel, Mr. Katz, put out, translated from Hebrew. He says, "Iran crossed red lines when it dared to fire missiles at civilian population centers in Israel, referring to these recent strikes. We will continue to protect the citizens of Israel and ensure that the Ayatollah regime pays a very heavy price for its criminal actions." The latest statement from the Defense Minister of Israel.

Let's bring in Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus now. The former spokesman of the Israeli Defense Forces.

Colonel, what do you make and what are you hearing about the response from Iran's military?

LT. COL. JONATHAN CONRICUS (RET.), FORMER SPOKESPERSON FOR THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: Yes, good evening, from Israel, just came out of the bomb shelter myself. Luckily, nobody was hit in my vicinity. But definitely, as we know, impacts in Tel Aviv. So far, I do not know of dead Israelis, only wounded. And I think this is more or less advancing according to plan or assessments. I think it was anticipated from yesterday that the Iranians would do what they are doing now, to fire massive amounts of ballistic missiles towards what they claim is military targets. And that may be the case, but effectively hitting civilians.

And what - where this leaves us, I think, is with now perhaps the ball coming back into the Israeli court and Israel having the option to decide whether to expand the target bank that Israel has been attacking so far, which so far has been limited to military, military personnel and people related to the nuclear weapons program and nuclear facilities.

Israel, of course, can expand that to national infrastructure and to other things. And I think that the - what Minister Katz is insinuating here is in that direction. I'm not sure that has yet - that decision has yet been made by Israel. It's still early day, early minutes. And it depends on how many casualties and what kind of damage we'll see in Israel and how many more missiles the Iranians will fire.

But I think before - you know, before this Iranian attack against Israel, I think the question was, what are the Iranians going to do? Are they going to de-escalate, or are they going to try to get even with Israel? It looks as if they're aspiring to escalate. And I think Israel will see that hand and raise by the capabilities that Israel has.

TAPPER: Well, let's talk about that, because if the Defense Minister of Israel is saying that Iran crossed red lines when it, quote, dared to fire missiles at civilian population centers in Israel, and indeed we're looking at scenes of what looked like apartment buildings in Tel Aviv, if Minister Katz also says that the Ayatollah regime, the Iranian regime, is going to pay a very heavy price for its criminal actions, they're saying, does that mean that the Israeli defense forces feel as though it would be appropriate to now respond with an attack on civilian centers, population centers, in Tehran? Is that what that means

CONRICUS: No, I mean, Jake, as you've seen in the early Israeli strikes, Israeli strikes were as surgical as a military strike can be. And they were focused on military targets and the people that were related to the nuclear program, and with extremely little collateral damage, if any. Of course, the IDF won't be, you know, wasting ammunition on causing wanton destruction in Iran. Israel will be focusing its capabilities on specific military objectives of military importance.

But what I think here is that where it's leaning is that this could lead us into Israel now starting to attack infrastructure that is of national importance and perhaps related to the economic capabilities of the Islamic regime. And perhaps that is what Minister Katz is kind of paving the way for.

Now, let's be honest here. If we look at the balance of capabilities as they have been displayed so far in this encounter, as Colonel Leighton also spoke about, there isn't parity.

[15:25:01] Israel has air defenses, and Israel has been proven its capacity to

peel away Iranian air defenses and is operating in Iranian airspace now with extremely limited restrictions. And that is no small thing, and I think the Iranians are aware of it. And it's a dangerous gamble that the Iranians are doing because they are gambling without really having solid defenses left. And it could open this up to a much broader conflict where everything in Iran, infrastructure and facilities that are not only related to the nuclear program or the Revolutionary Guard Quds Force could become targets, and that has not been the case so far.

So, we might be witnessing an escalation and a transition here from one group of targets to another.

TAPPER: So, Barak Ravid, who's a CNN commentator and also a journalist with Axios, one of the best-sourced reporters on the Middle East that exists, he and a colleague reported earlier today that two Israeli officials told them that Trump and his aides were only pretending to oppose an Israeli attack in public and didn't express opposition in private. We had a clear U.S. green light, one of them claimed. The goal, they say, was to convince Iran that no attack was imminent and make sure Iranians on Israel's target list wouldn't move to new locations.

Netanyahu's aides even briefed Israeli reporters that Trump had tried to put the brakes on an Israeli strike in a call on Monday, when, in reality, the call dealt with coordination ahead of the attack, Israeli officials now say. I don't know if you know anything about that, but what is your response to that reporting?

CONRICUS: I usually treat every report that I hear that doesn't name a source, but sources, anonymous sources, with a lot of skepticism. Having said that, judging by the results of the amount of senior Iranian military and nuclear officials that were obviously unaware of the threat that they were under and were eliminated by Israel, it would indicate that there has indeed been a very successful deception of the Iranians and that the Iranians were led to believe that they are safe and that they can continue to develop nuclear weapons, that they can continue to fund terror organizations and continue to aspire for the destruction of the state of Israel, when, in fact, Israel was preparing and eventually executed quite a successful military strike on them.

TAPPER: So, whether or not President Trump was part of the deception, there was a deception that was successful. Jonathan, Israelis, I believe, are being told that they can leave the bomb shelters. Is that correct? And does that mean that the wave of this Iranian retaliation is over? And how much more do you expect in terms of counter-strike, counter-strike, counter-strike?

CONRICUS: I think we're in for a long night and in for a few very challenging days, the way that it's looking. And I think that the Iranians have still enough missiles and capabilities to fire. The good thing is that we have almost minute-level details the amount of minutes before impact. We have that based on the radars and the other sensors that we have. And so, we go to shelters according to the Home Front Command orders and directives. And we go out when they tell us that it's safe.

That's also a level of, you know, investment in public safety and security that the state of Israel has done in order to protect its civilians. And I think that is commendable. But at the end of the day, I think we're looking at a few tough days where there will be counter- strikes. And I think that now the Israeli establishment, the Israeli Air Force, Mossad, and others, perhaps additional forces as well, will retaliate against the Iranians. And maybe then the Iranians will continue to retaliate.

In terms of the bigger context, I think it's super important that we remain cognizant of the fact that the negotiations, according to the U.S., are still open and that that path exists for the Iranians to choose. If they choose to stop trying to develop nuclear bombs and if they choose to relinquish enrichment in Iran, then that is an option that exists, but that is the option that exists, nothing else.

If they continue to try to obfuscate and delay and continue to enrich uranium to a military grade and aspire or rush towards nuclear capabilities, that's not going to happen. And that's an offer that's something of the past. And I think it's important that the Iranians understand that.

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TAPPER: All right, Jonathan Conricus, former spokesman for the IDF, thank you so much. We're going to squeeze in a quick break.