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U.S. Conducts Airstrikes In Iraq; Cease-Fire Ends, Rockets Fly

Aired August 08, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. Thanks very much for joining us. We're following two breaking stories today.

First, in Iraq, this morning, the U.S. launching air strikes to avoid what President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have called a potential genocide. The goal to stop the advance of what's now being called the Islamic State or ISIS, a group of Sunni extremists spearheading a brutal campaign to take over the region and eliminate Christians, other religious minorities who get in their way.

Also, in the Middle East, a cease-fire ends. Rockets are flying. Israel has pulled out of the peace talks in Cairo. Some calling the discussions, a complete stalemate, an impasse right now, America this morning watching with a laser focus on what happens next.

Let's begin our coverage first in Iraq, from the Pentagon to the White House, to the center of the crISIS in Iraq and beyond. CNN is covering this story like no other network can.

Our senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta is over at the White House, our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon. Jim, let me start with you, the president last night, he authorized U.S. air strikes.

Today, the air strikes against these ISIS targets in Iraq began. Tell us what we know.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And I can tell you from talking to deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, within the last hour that the president did not make an additional decision when these air strikes were carried out, Wolf.

That was implicit when he authorized those air strikes and announced those air strikes last night in the state dining room here at the White House. I did hear from Ben Rhodes that what the president has basically given the U.S. military is what he called a, quote, "green light."

A green light to take out ISIS targets that threaten that northern Iraqi city of Irbil where U.S. military advisers and diplomatic personnel are stationed. Those U.S. military advisers as you know, Wolf, have been working with the Iraqis to look at the ISIS threat. Basically, what happened according to Ben Rhodes is that those ISIS fighters were starting to shell Kurdish Peshmerga fighters as Kurdish fighters in Northern Iraq. That triggered these airstrikes. The president has given the U.S. military the latitude to assess the threat coming from ISIS.

If they feel like Irbil is being threatened, those Kurdish forces protecting that city are being threatened those air strikes are going to take place. Another very interesting thing that Ben Rhodes said, is that if those people who are taking refuge.

Those ethnic minorities, the Yazidis, the Christians taking refuge in Northern Iraq are threatened, basically on the verge of being slaughtered by these ISIS fighters, that additional air strikes would take place.

They were very clear at the White House in a background conference call with reporters that they intend to break the siege where those people are taking refuge. The other thing we should point, Wolf, is that this threat to U.S. personnel will likely continue.

Last night, on a conference call with reporters, senior administration officials said, they have no plans at this point to evacuate those U.S. military advisers in Irbil. That means they will continue to be in harm's way and as long as they continue to be in harm's way, these air strikes may be happening on a case by case basis.

The last thing that Ben Rhodes said as he walked away from reporters and it was a very short gaggle on the north lawn of the White House, something that doesn't happen very often is that he was heading into a principal's meeting at the White House. That refers to a meeting among the president's national security

advisers on what is happening in Iraq right now. We should also point out there are no plans at this point for the president to go anywhere, but to Martha's Vineyard this weekend.

He still has his plans to go on vacation at Martha's Vineyard. He will be taking national security advisers with him. Separately, we want to point out that the White House is also taking the point of saying that they will be supplying a war powers letter to leaders in Congress.

That sort of a jargon in term, Wolf, but it refers basically to the official notification, the legal constitution notification, that the president must provide to lawmakers up on Capitol Hill that these air strikes are taking place.

My understanding from talking to senior administration officials is that that could be happening at any moment -- Wolf.

BLITZER: That's just a technicality under Wars Powers Act. Standby.

I want to go to Barbara Starr over at the Pentagon. All right, Barbara, tell us about these air strikes. Two 500-pound precision bombs were dropped on ISIS targets around Irbil, is that what happened? BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Let's parse it all out, Wolf. What we do know is two U.S. Navy F-18s flying off the deck of the aircraft carrier, George H.W. Bush in the Persian Gulf attacked this target. This was an artillery piece, mobile, that means it can move around very quickly, being manned by ISIS.

ISIS, the U.S. says, was shelling Kurdish forces in Irbil where these U.S. forces are located. That was the reason for moving in, dropping in 500-pound laser-guided, very precision bombs on the artillery piece and taking it out.

This meets the president's standard of doing what is necessary to protect U.S. personnel in Irbil, both military and diplomatic personnel at the U.S. Consulate there. All indications to underscore what Jim Acosta was just saying is that the air strikes will continue if ISIS doesn't back off.

They are prepared. They now have U.S. war planes, mainly Navy planes off the George H.W. Bush at this point, in the air, on combat patrol, looking for any targets, for any threats, and they can move immediately. They don't have to come back for additional authorization.

If they see a threat, they can take it out. The second sort of category of air strikes would be against ISIS up in those mountains in Northern Iraq to protect the Iraqi minorities who are trying to find some refuge there, if begins to move on them in any fashion in the coming hours.

The U.S. prepared also to undertake air strikes there. I have to tell you we have learned how quickly, how urgently this plan came together. An official telling me it was just Wednesday when talks between the U.S. military and the White House began in earnest.

It was yesterday when it all came together. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff working it around the clock, Chuck Hagel, the defense secretary traveling overseas calling in by secure video teleconference.

So this is really been a very quick and swift effort to get this moving. The question now, now that they have opened the door to these air strikes, where does it could go from here? Has this actually suddenly broadened the U.S. mission in Iraq? Are U.S. forces back in action essentially some two and a half years after leaving Iraq? -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Barbara, I'm going to Ivan Watson in a moment. He's in Irbil for us under very difficult circumstances. How many Americans are in Irbil, right now? I take it there are a few dozen military personnel, some consular diplomatic personnel, we're not talking about a whole lot of Americans there, right?

STARR: No. I think for security reasons, the administration is reluctant to give a precise number. Slightly under four dozen military personnel, several dozen diplomatic personnel, some having moved up from Baghdad several weeks ago when it appeared that Irbil might be the safest place to be.

You know, the question, of course, why Irbil, why does it suddenly appear to be taken over by ISIS militants? How quickly are these people on the move and what can be done about it? ISIS, you know, was thought to be stretched thin. It sure doesn't appear to be so

BLITZER: Stand by. The question being asked why not simply evacuate those few dozen Americans, get them out of harm's way, and move on, but we'll have more on that in just a few moments.

I want to go to Irbil right now. How broad is the reach of ISIS? Look at this map right now. This is what the terror group controlled in June, here's what they control now and they are slowing down at all. They are not stopping for a while.

The Kurdish capital of Irbil seemed safe as Barbara just reported not anymore. Iva Watson is right there. He is in a church full of refugees. The Christians, hundreds of thousands of them have already fled Iraq and now tens of thousands of them are being endangered and the Yazidis.

Other minorities are being threatened with what the president, the secretary of state called genocide. What's it like where you are, Ivan?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We moved across the street from the church, Wolf and now we're in an unfinished building, basically a construction site where some of the displaced Iraqi Christians have taken shelter.

We have seen scenes like this in other parts of Irbil as well. All of the people we talk to, they basically fled their towns and villages after the Kurdish militia pulled out Wednesday night and triggered a mass panic and sent just a wave of humanity, an exodus of people fleeing towards Kurdistan and towards Irbil and other Kurdish city, which have basically safe havens, but not that safe.

Irbil is only 30 miles from the front lines where ISIS is operating. It is quite close. Kurdish leaders say they are grateful that the U.S. has brought air power to protect them. They were really worried about ISIS' fast advance.

As one Kurdish told me, the Mosul Dam is a very strategic location that was captured by the ISIS within the last two days. He says that the ISIS militants used Abraham tanks, which are weapons -- the U.S. military arsenal, which were weapons in the Iraqi army's arsenal captured by ISIS.

And now employed by -- on the battlefield and part of why the Kurdish Peshmerga had been pushed back. I met a young man, this is a 22-year- old, Andros, who -- you fled your house two days ago. Can you tell me what was the scene like when you ran away?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. I'm just too scared. There was a thousand car and my father drove the car for six hours, six hours, a few hours in the dust and in the road. When we were in the dust, you couldn't see anything, just cars running away. We didn't know where we are going. So I don't know.

WATSON: And you were running from ISIS, from the Islamic State?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, Islamic State. Those people are not people. They are monsters. Not monsters. Monsters are better.

WATSON: Did you think you can ever go home?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think so.

WATSON: You think it's finished?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it's finished.

WATSON: The American Air Force has started bombing. What do you think about that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Maybe. Maybe they can.

WATSON: What would you like to tell people around the world about this situation you're in right now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Too angry, too scare. They took our home, our money, everything. I just don't know. Nervous.

WATSON: Wolf, so that's Andros' point, 22-year-old university student, studying English. Clearly a very difficult and frightening situation. Everybody just told us that they left just with the clothes on their backs. So they've showed up here in the Kurdistan region.

There are adhoc efforts to feed people, to give them water. As you can see the shelter completely rudimentary. The Kurdish authority say that more than half a million people would have fled to the north western region, half a million people and that the governor of Irbil says about 300,000 people have fled to the Irbil region.

So this is an enormous burden on the Kurdish authorities who are waging a battle very close by against the ISIS militants. So it is a tense situation. We are going to take you across the street to see more of the displaced people and as you heard from that young man nobody has a plan right now. Nobody knows what they are going to do -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Ivan, I'm going to come right back to you. We're going to stay on these pictures. No other news networks have these kind of images that Ivan Watson is showing us. These ISIS forces are on the move, they are threatening Irbil right.

It's hard to believe for those who have been that part of Iraq that Irbil is now actually threatening part because the ISIS troops, went over into Mosul and took over. The Iraqi army abandoned their positions, even though they have been trained and armed by the United States, financed by the United States for nearly a decade.

They abandoned warehouses, one of the reasons that these ISIS forces have Abrams battle tanks, armored personnel carriers. These are U.S. military hardware, which the Iraqi military simply abandoned and beyond that, the ISIS forces went over and captured a whole bunch of banks in Mosul and other places and stealing hundreds of millions of dollars and buying a lot of stuff with that.

That's why these other areas once considered safe and secure are now considered endangered. We'll get back to Ivan. We'll get back to Barbara at the Pentagon. Jim Acosta at the White House. Much more of the breaking news coverage right here on CNN right after this.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: To stop the advance on Irbil, I've directed our military to take targeted strikes against ISIL terrorist convoys should they move toward the city. We intend to stay vigilant and take action if these terrorist forces threaten our personnel or facilities anywhere in Iraq, including our consulate in Irbil and our embassy in Baghdad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: President Obama speaking last night, announcing the authorization of U.S. air strikes against ISIS targets in Iraq. The authorization occurred yesterday. This morning, the U.S. began those air strikes launching two major air strikes against various artillery positions manned by ISIS forces in and around the Irbil area.

The president called it ISIL, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Lebanon. Others call it the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria or ISIS. Whatever it is called the Islamic -- the ISIS forces are now simply causing themself the Islamic State.

They want to establish a caliphate encompassing not only Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, but that whole region. How dangerous is ISIS right now? Brian Todd is taking a closer look at the history of what they have done and what they want to do. Brian, what have you found out?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, U.S. intelligence officials are telling me they have growing concern that ISIS is going to expand its threat beyond the territory it controls now, far beyond it, to include possible attacks on western and U.S. interests.

This comes as chilling new images have surfaced showing what could be the future of the militant group's threat.

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TODD (voice-over): A chilling image of what could be the future of the Islamic State's threat. In a new propaganda video, this man identified as Abu Abudarakman al-Trinidadi is referred to by ISIS as an American. He calls on Muslims to join the fight.

The senior U.S. official says the intelligence community is tracking this man, but cannot confirm he's American. Another man in the video identifies himself as British.

There is growing concern among U.S. intelligence officials the threat from ISIS could expand beyond the areas it controls now to include attacks on western and U.S. interest.

The more immediate concern is about the ISIS threat to Europe and what that might mean for what one official called an eventual threat to the U.S. homeland. Intelligence officials say over the past few months, people associated with ISIS have been arrested in Spain and France for plotting attacks and constructing explosive devices.

They confirm the shooter in the attack on the Jewish museum in Brussels, in May was a member of ISIS. There are urgent calls for the U.S. to help contain the ISIS threat by arming Kurdish forces now fighting vicious battles against ISIS in northern Iraq. The Kurdish foreign minister said this to CNN.

FALAH MUSTAFA BAKIR, FOREIGN MINISTER, IRAQI KURDISH REGIONAL GOVERNMENT: We need the United States and NATO to interfere because we are fighting on behalf of all of those who are against terrorism.

TODD: U.S. officials acknowledged they are sharing intelligence with Kurdish forces, but they insist any U.S. military assistance to the Kurds would be channelled through the Iraqi government in Baghdad. Experts warn that arming the Kurds directly comes with a risk.

RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: The risk of that equipment falling into the hands of ISIS. If you look at what ISIS is using in the field right now, a lot of that is U.S. military equipment that was taken from the Iraqi army.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Another risk, if the U.S. directly gives the Kurds a lot of weapons and other military help in this situation and the Kurds make real gains on the battlefield, the Kurds might want to kick out not just ISIS, but the Iraqis as well. And they may want to become an independent state. That, experts say, is going to create another mess in that region -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, the Kurdish Peshmerga, they are excellent warriors. They are great fighters, but they don't have the weaponry. They are basically likely armed right now, certainly they can't compete with Abrams battle tanks or sophisticated personnel carriers or other equipment that the ISIS forces stole from the Iraqi military as they moved in from Syria and took over huge chunks of Iraq. Brian Todd, thanks very much for that report.

Back in 1991, the first Gulf War, the U.S. launched air strikes against Saddam Hussein's positions in Iraq to liberate Kuwait. That mission was accomplished. In 2003, the U.S. once again launched airstrikes to get rid of Saddam Hussein.

Eventually they did although the U.S. wound up spending nearly a decade in Iraq. In 2014, the United States once again launching air strikes to go after ISIS terror targets in Iraq. We'll see where this process leads next. Much more on the breaking news coverage right here on CNN right after this.

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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. We'll get back to the breaking news out of Iraq in just a few minutes. But first the cease-fire in the Middle East now over. In Gaza, hopes for a truce are now dashed. Rockets once again flying after that 72 hour cease-fire expires.

Empty streets across the Gaza Strip as Israel launches airstrikes against, quote, "terrorist" it says violated the deal. Among the first and youngest victims, a 10-year-old boy shown here as his anguished father looks on.

While Hamas says it did not fire any rockets before that cease-fire and that some of its allies including the Islamic Jihad are taking responsibility and the consequences are reaching far beyond the Gaza Strip. Israel pulling out of peace talks in Cairo saying it will not negotiate under fire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK REGEV, ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN: Israel accepted the Egyptian initiative, three weeks ago. We accepted that there should be a cessation of fighting and we can discuss the issues. It can only work if you can make the cease-fire stick.

Unfortunately, Hamas has shown that they are nihilistic. That they are unfortunately callus and that they are -- their whole view is not maybe dissimilar from ISIS in Iraq. This violent Jihad above everything else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK, so let's talk about this. Nicholas Burns is a Harvard law professor and a columnist for the Boston Globe and a former U.S. ambassador to NATO and Daniel Kurtzer is a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and to Egypt. Welcome to you both.

Daniel, is it any surprise the fighting has started again?

DANIEL KURTZER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL, EGYPT: No, not at all. Hamas is very nervous about being marginalized in these peace talks because in fact Egypt and Israel are in one mind in most issues and Egypt prefers to deal with the Palestinian Authority. In some respects what Hamas and its allies are, the Islamic Jihad are doing is reminding everyone that they are there.

The second factor is that Hamas doesn't really exercise complete control even within its own ranks. The military wing within Gaza has been up a bit to keep going. So this is not at all surprising and is likely to recur from time to time during the course of these peace talks.

COSTELLO: OK, so with that said, Nicholas, a part of it doesn't understand why Hamas would fire rockets into Israel. Parts of Gaza wipe out, more than 1,000 people are dead. At this point who cares who started it? Why doesn't Hamas stop? It can't win.

NICHOLAS BURNS, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: Well, Carol, it does appear from the press reports that it was Islamic Jihad that fired those rockets this morning. Nonetheless, Hamas bears responsibility because it's the controlling authority. It's hard to imagine why they would do this. Maybe as Ambassador Kurtzer said it's an attempt to reinforce their negotiating position in the Cairo talks.