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Israel Brace for Drone Attacks; Residents Stock Up Food; Iranian Officials Killed in Attacks; U.S. Distance Itself From War; Israel Strikes Iranian Nuclear Facilities, Military Leaders; Official: At Least 290 People Killed In Air India Crash. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired June 13, 2025 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNKNOWN: This is CNN breaking news.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. This is CNN Newsroom. I'm Jim Sciutto in New York.

Israel says that Tehran's retaliation is now underway. This following an earlier and ongoing barrage of Israeli strikes across Iran.

A short time ago, the Israeli military said Iran has launched more than 100 drones towards Israel and that Israel was working to intercept them. Earlier, Israel said it struck dozens of targets related to Iran's nuclear program as well as military and missile installations and several top military leaders and nuclear scientists.

Iran's state TV says the strikes killed the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, the commander of Iran's powerful revolutionary guard. Washington, early on, made it clear publicly that Israel was acting on its own, that the U.S. is not involved in these attacks.

Israel has announced a state of emergency in anticipation of Iran's retaliation. As you see there, many shoppers rushed to stock up on food in advance.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's strikes on Iran are not over, and he said Israel had no choice but to attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: In recent months, Iran has taken steps that it has never taken before. Steps to weaponize this enriched uranium. And if not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time. It could be a year. It could be within a few months, less than a year. This is a clear and present danger to Israel's very survival.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Paula Hancocks joins us now from Abu Dhabi. Tell us about the regional reaction to these strikes.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, we are starting to get some regional reaction. Saudi Arabia, for example, has responded the statement. They're saying that there is strong condemnation and denunciation of the blatant Israeli attack saying that it threatens the sovereignty of Iran.

A similar, message we're hearing from the Lebanese prime minister, on X saying he strongly condemns the dangerous Israeli aggression against Iran. And he also points out that there could be repercussions that threaten the stability of the entire region.

So that is the concern from many of these countries in the region at this point. We've heard also from Jordanian officials saying that they don't want Jordanian airspace or Jordanian, Jordan itself becoming a battleground or being used in any way between the retaliation or the further strikes that we are expecting from Israel.

So, there is great concern from the region at this point that these unprecedented strikes from Israel will spark a wider conflict that that other countries in the region may find themselves being dragged into this. Of course, there's no guarantees for them exactly how far this will go at this point.

We've had an update from the Israeli military. They've said that they have struck now more than 100 targets in Iran, saying that some 200 fighter jets have been used in these strikes in the early hours of Friday morning. And as we know the Israeli military also saying that some 100 Iranian drones have been launched towards Israeli territory, which will reach in the hours to come.

Israel itself has been bracing for this retaliation. It knew that it would come. We heard from the Iranian supreme leader that there would be retaliation, that it would be severe punishment for those attacks. We know that Israel is under a state of emergency, that schools, workplaces have been closed, that there are underground wards in hospitals being activated at this point, and all hospitals across the country are on the highest level of alerts.

Now we also know that all citizens did have warnings on their phones from Israeli home command, warning that they had to shelter as best as they could. We also saw from one of our CNN teams on the ground that in the early hours of Friday there were a number of residents of Tel Aviv that were rushing out to buy some provisions in local supermarkets.

[02:05:08]

So, there is an expectation that this is not a one-day event. In fact, we've heard from the Israeli prime minister that this will last a number of days. And so, really, citizens in Israel, citizens in Iran bracing themselves for what comes next. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Paula Hancocks in Abu Dhabi. Thanks so much.

We're joined now by Benjamin Radd. He's a political scientist and senior fellow at UCLA's Burkle Center for International Relations.

Thanks so much for taking the time this evening.

BENJAMIN RADD, RESEARCH FELLOW, UCLA CENTER FOR MIDDLE EAST DEVELOPMENT: Thank you for having me on.

SCIUTTO: Tell us where this is likely to go from here. You have Israel promising days of strikes that these are not isolated strikes that we saw in the first hours. You have Iran already retaliating, and the expectation is for further retaliation.

Is there a way to deescalate this conflict or is the greater risk that goes the other way, that it spirals?

RADD: Yes. For Iran, it's difficult to see an off ramp. It has two problems. There's the external problem, the existential problem of attacks from Israel. But the domestic problem, which is now underscored by these attacks, is that quite frankly, the Iranian government has failed several times now in recent years to keep its senior leadership safe.

It has basically promised to protect its top officials, to protect its assets. It's been unable to do so, and so the concern now for the Iranians is, will this foment and instigate any more internal opposition, the kind of which they've seen off and on in the last few years?

And this is, you know, precisely one of the objectives Netanyahu had in mind, presumably when he launched these attacks. So, for Iran, it's difficult to see where the off ramp is. It has to retaliate, retaliate fiercely to show that it still has a degree of control, to show that the supreme leader and his officials are still in charge, and that the country is not compromised. And with that said, it's hard to see where else it can go other than to respond and to, therefore, escalate the situation.

SCIUTTO: It's been said that while Israel certainly views the Iranian nuclear program as an existential threat to its own country, that Iran as well sees at least a potential path towards nuclear weapons as existential in that it doesn't believe it can defend itself, without at least the possibility of a nuclear program.

How does one balance those two competing drives?

RADD: Yes. This has been a continued struggle in the international community pretty much since the nineteen sixties, since the dawn of the non-nuclear nonproliferation treaty. We've seen now countries that lacked that capability have been essentially invaded, occupied, and subjugated by much by much more stronger dominant countries. Ukraine is the most recent example.

But then you look at, for example, North Korea, which has been able to maintain its position, its power as a result of its nuclear capability. Same thing with Pakistan, for example. So, if your nation is in the Middle East that are bordered by enemies or potential enemies, the concern is that nuclear weapons are the only deterrent that you have as history has shown, and it's difficult to see how that ideology, how that thinking is going to be abated in any way as a result of what we've seen in these last few hours. If anything, it underscores for the Iranian regime that its survival is predicated on its ability to have a nuclear deterrent so that then and only then can it match Israel.

SCIUTTO: How does Donald Trump emerge from this? Because he had invested an enormous amount of diplomatic capital in nuclear negotiations with Iran. In fact, had talks planned for this Sunday. Does this look to you like Israel spoiling those nuclear negotiations?

RADD: Well, the conundrum here is that we've seen President Trump indicate both forward moving progress on the talks, but also, he gave comments on social media and also to the press indicating that there'd be a price to pay for Iran if it did not agree to terms that would be acceptable to all parties.

And let's, you know, remember that it was President Trump who decried the 2015 JCPOA the original Iran deal and was the one that essentially pulled the U.S. out of the deal in 2018 when he became president. It's difficult to see where this deal negotiating with Iran and Oman would have gone that would have differed too much from that JCPOA.

So, it's really hard to see what the administration would have gained over the previous deal, and as it stands now, there's no deal likely given that Iran has little to gain by continuing in these negotiations.

[02:10:02]

SCIUTTO: Now one consistent feature not just of these strikes that killed multiple Iranian senior military leaders and apparently nuclear scientists, when you look at Israel's attack, attacks on Hezbollah, in Lebanon on Hamas leaders, that Israel has proven a willingness and capability to take out the senior leadership around the region, sometimes around the world, of its adversaries. What are the ramifications of that?

RADD: And this is what I -- the point I brought up earlier is that Iran has demonstrated that it is unable to keep its top military and civilian officials safe. It can't even keep safe high-ranking diplomats and officials from other countries or from other proxy groups that it hosts in its own country, presumably in areas that are safe and secure, that are well guarded.

The Israelis have shown that they've been able to infiltrate Iran's domestic security. They've had spies. They've had saboteurs. Oftentimes, some who are Iranian or Iranian nationals. And so, the big challenge for Iran is not only the external attacks from these, from Israeli fighter jets, but also why is it that Iran is not able to guarantee or provide any semblance of security for its own officials, and this only now looks worse in light of these attacks.

SCIUTTO: Benjamin Radd, UCLA, thanks so much for joining.

RADD: Thank you. SCIUTTO: There is much more to come on CNN. Our breaking news coverage

of the conflict between Israel and Iran will continue right after a short break.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Back now to our breaking news.

We're learning that at least six Iranian nuclear scientists were killed in Israel's unprecedented attacks on Iran. The Israeli prime minister says attacks on key targets inside Iran will likely last several days in an effort to roll back what he calls the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival.

Israel carried out a string of overnight strikes that killed several top military commanders and those nuclear scientists. The attacks also struck nuclear facilities and missile installations. One of those nuclear facilities seen there, the Natanz enrichment site.

Iranian media reports among those killed, the leader of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps along with the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, the IRGC says the attacks will not remain unanswered and warned Israel it can expect harsh and regrettable revenge.

Joining me now is Mark McCarley, retired Major General with the U.S. Army and founder of McCarley and Rosen Consultants and Lawyers.

Thanks so much for joining.

MARK MACCARLEY, RETIRED U.S. ARMY: I appreciate it. Good evening.

SCIUTTO: If you were commanding U.S. forces in the region right now, what would your degree of concern be that they might be targets for Iranian retaliation?

MACCARLEY: I'd say very simply at the highest level of concern, not only because Iran has made the threat, but we, America, have significant military assets within striking distance of the weapons capability of the Iranian Guard Forces.

And so if we look at Kuwait, we look at Bahrain, we look at Qatar, all of which serve as headquarters and as locations of significant commitment of U.S. resources. If Iran chooses to, quote, "punish" the United States for somehow participating in this attack by Israel, whether in the form of providing guidance and control or simply supporting on the side. There is a real concern regarding those particular major facilities.

SCIUTTO: Do these Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, do they serve U.S. national security interests in the region?

MACCARLEY: The best way of answering that is to make reference to the comments previously a professor at UCLA. Certainly, we have been attempting for years and years going back to the Obama administration and even before that to find some sort of concordat or legal relationship, enforceable legal relationship with Iran. Iran to drop any commitment to developing nuclear weapons. That has not happened.

Even in the last couple of months, the present administration has opted to move forward in negotiations with Iran to accomplish the same objective. More recent reports have indicated that there hasn't been significant success in those negotiations.

So, from this grand standpoint, the big picture from the U.S. perspective, that risk that Iran would acquire, and quite frankly, if the reports are accurate from the International Atomic Energy Agency and other sources of open-source data, it looks to me as if Iran was within a striking distance, maybe months or so, from having a significant complement of nuclear weapons.

[02:19:58]

So backtracking, yes, that is a huge concern for the United States because the United States big player and committed to the Middle East.

SCIUTTO: Would the U.S. would the region have been safer if The US had stayed in the 2015 nuclear deal? That had at least limited Iranian nuclear enrichment. It had lengthened the breakout period. Since then, Iran -- since President Trump removed the U.S. from that deal, Iran has enriched tons of fissile material and now here we are with this Israeli attack. Would the U.S., would the region have been better off had that deal survived?

MACCARLEY: I can almost incorporate your remarks. We had something in place, not necessarily good. It had some benefits associated with the fact that there was limited oversight over what Iran was doing in terms of development. There was a cap, a 10-year cap in terms of, moving forward with enrichment of uranium.

So, when you look at it, you say that was better than nothing because when we went to nothing, and that particular agreement was terminated by the Trump administration, the first Trump administration. There was nothing that restricted Iran from moving forward except for sanctions, and those sanctions have quite frankly not been significantly effective or effective enough to cause the Iranians to back away from moving toward nuclear weapons. So, in answer to your question, yes.

SCIUTTO: Mark McCarley, good to have you on. I appreciate your help.

MACCARLEY: Yes, sir.

SCIUTTO: Well, Israel is now bracing for retaliation by Iran, and in fact, the Israeli military says that Iran has now launched more than 100 drones towards Israel. It takes some time to get there considering their air speeds.

Our coverage continues after a short break.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: I arrived here for buying few merchandise, few groceries to have for my baby and my wife. And we got the notice that we attacked Iran. And we need to have the supply if in case something happens, we'll be ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Some Israelis headed to supermarkets to stock up on supplies after the government warned citizens there to take shelter in, quote, "the best way possible."

Iran's supreme leader said his country would strike back against Israel after Israel's continuing attacks on Iran. Israel's military now says more than a hundred Iranian drones are on their way to Israel as we speak.

Israel's military says it is expecting difficult hours ahead. This comes after the Israeli prime minister said Israel targeted Iranian military and nuclear sites as well as top military leaders. Those leaders include General Hossein Salami, commander in chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard. He was among his country's most powerful figures. Israel's military says 200 fighter jets took part in the operations.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made clear publicly the U.S. was not involved in the attacks.

Before them, President Trump said he did not want Israel to target Iran as the U.S. continued to work on negotiations for a nuclear deal.

Earlier, I spoke to Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the U.N. He explained why he believes it was necessary for Israel to strike Iran now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANNY DANON, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: We do not have faith in the Iranians. You know, look what they did in the last decades. They were negotiating, signing women's playing the game, but as they were doing that, they were actually able to produce enough material to come with more than 15 bombs, they have the technology.

So, basically it was up to them to decide when they want to actually try it or use it and use it against us. So, for us there were two options, either we wait to see whether they are serious about their intentions or we take those attacks. We decided not to wait. It's too risky for Israel to take chances and you know, today it's not in forties when we had no state, no military, no air force. Those days are over.

Today we have capabilities. We are capable of defending ourselves and that's exactly what we are doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: As we've noted, the U.S. is distancing itself from the Israeli attacks on Iran, which Trump did speak publicly about the possibility days ago. The administration is looking to make clear Israel acted on its own.

CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes has more.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We've still not gotten any sort of direct response from President Donald Trump or the White House, but they are pointing to this statement from Marco Rubio, which is really serving right now as a statement for the entire administration.

[02:29:54]

I want to read it in full. It says tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We were not involved in the strikes against Iran. And our top priority is protecting American forces in the region.

Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for self-defense. President Trump and the administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners.

Let me be clear. Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel. Now, a couple lines I want to point out here. One, they are clearly stressing the fact that this was unilateral action. The other part of this, we know that the United States had been concerned about U.S. personnel in the Middle East. They had already started trying to evacuate nonessential personnel from that region.

In fact, Donald Trump was actually asked about this earlier today. The Israelis had given him any indication or any reasoning to withdraw those personnel. And he said, no, they had not.

But we are told that White House officials were expecting this attack. They were expecting this to happen, and they were bracing themselves for it.

Now, the other part of the statement that I want to point to is this line here. It says, Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense. The reason I'm pointing to that is because it's going to raise a lot of questions as to who informed the U.S.

Did Netanyahu talk directly to Donald Trump? The last known conversation between those two leaders was on Monday, and Donald Trump has both privately and publicly urged Netanyahu not to have any not to make any strikes or any moves towards Iran, particularly as these negotiations were going on between the United States and Iran as early as earlier today, we were told that Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was still expected to go to Oman to travel for these six round of these U.S. Iran talks. Obviously, it seems as though they're very unlikely to continue at

this point. Now, one of a statement that Donald Trump made before this happened, but likely as his team was bracing and gearing up for these potential strikes, he posted this on truth social. He said we remain committed to a diplomatic resolution to the Iran nuclear issue. My entire administration has been directed to negotiate with Iran.

So clearly here, they're pointing to this saying that they still wanted these negotiations to continue and they're not fully supporting any kind of potential strikes from Israel here. So again, a lot of questions as to who informed who. When have these two leaders spoken? Did Donald Trump at any point try to dissuade Netanyahu from actually launching these strikes?

And that's what were currently looking into.

Kristen Holmes, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: All very important questions there. I'm joined now by Behnam Ben Taleblu. He's a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Thanks so much for joining.

BEHNAM BEN TALEBLU, SENIOR FELLOW, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: Great to be with you, Jim. Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Can you describe your best assessment as to what Israel's objective with these strikes? Is it to damage Iran's nuclear program or destroy it? Does it have the capability of destroying it?

TALEBLU: Well, first and foremost, it's worth noting that the Israelis seem to have targeted far beyond the nuclear program of the Islamic Republic. There seems to be several targeted strikes against commanders, high ranking military commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as the armed forces general staff, the military command and control of that country. It may even look like they did a much smaller version of what we saw in Lebanon back in September of 2024, against that Iranian proxy, Hezbollah. They're basically gutting one entire section of the command and control of the Islamic republic's premier terror force.

So, in this sense, I think the Israelis were looking to do significant damage to the Iranian nuclear program. I think only time will tell with a clearer, more objective battle damage assessment as to how far they've gone against Natanz. We do know that nuclear facility, which has one small above ground pilot plant and one larger subterranean plant. We do know that facility was struck several times, but we also do know that you've had, you know, sites east of Iran that are home to missile bases. Youve had reports on social media about Mossad operations in Iran as well.

And you also had two nuclear scientists, a former, in fact, chief of Iran's atomic energy organization, who had survived an assassination attempt, I think back in 2010, all killed in this, I think, 4 to 5 wave Israeli military operation.

SCIUTTO: So to that point, my next question is going to be, is the objective right up to and including an attempt at regime change?

TALEBLU: I don't know anything related to a potential Israeli strike against the supreme leader of Iran's house or office, or that political establishment. Thus far, there seems to be a lot of military targets, but if this becomes not an operation but a campaign, one could see the campaign moving, particularly if Iran responds massively against the Israelis and the -- and in that such a situation, hypothetically, President Donald Trump doesn't tell the Israelis to, quote/unquote, take the win. You could see these really move from counterproliferation to counter regime operations.

[02:35:00]

But that's not necessarily how I see these strikes yet.

SCIUTTO: How is Iran most likely to retaliate? Drones are already on the way. One I imagine can expect missile strikes as well. But to what degree and what extent? And I mean, would the intent be to just send a message, reestablish deterrence, or are we in the midst of something bigger?

TALEBLU: Well, certainly, I would say were in the midst of something bigger, because these really seem to be preparing for something bigger. Make no mistake, the Iranian ballistic missile barrage in October was the largest ever single day ballistic missile barrage in recorded history, and Iran is home to already the largest ballistic missile arsenal in the largest drone arsenal in the Middle East and arsenal that Tehran has been growing since Israels military retaliation against Iran's October 1st strike.

So, certainly, those are options on the table, particularly, I think you've had the drones come out first. That looks a lot like the April Iranian attack against Israel, where you had drones that took anywhere from 5 to 7 to nine hours to reach their destination. That could be paired with ballistic missiles. But the real X factor in this question is not what Iran might throw at Israel, but what Iran widen the war directly or indirectly against U.S. positions, some of which, as you mentioned, were vacated in the Middle East.

SCIUTTO: President Trump was invested in nuclear negotiations. There were negotiations scheduled for this Sunday. Did Israel defy the U.S. with these attacks?

TALEBLU: You know, this might sound a bit countercultural, but the moment I saw the U.S. and particularly American press talking about the downgrading or the downsizing of those diplomatic facilities and sending families home in the Persian Gulf region, I thought that there is a world in which it might be low probability, but there might be a world in which the president entered office in 2025, thinking that negotiations with Iran would be cheap and easy, and that a nuclear deal, a better nuclear deal than the Obama era, one would be around the corner. And I think political frustration in reality might have actually

pushed him to even entertain greenlighting or being okay with perhaps not greenlighting, but being okay with an Israeli military attack. That might be the means to get him to his diplomatic end.

So, unless this becomes a much wider total war, there still might be the chance for the president to keep pushing for something of a diplomatic solution. And here I would actually keep your eyes on the Europeans as well, who might be keen actually, actually to step in and mediate and say there might be an off ramp here, but no doubt Israel took a high risk in what they may be hoping for. High reward move.

SCIUTTO: What would the diplomatic -- you're saying another chance at nuclear negotiations even after Israel has struck the nuclear sites?

TALEBLU: I'm not saying immediately nuclear negotiations. If I had to put money on it, I don't think the Iranians would show up on Sunday. But I mean, time will only tell, particularly if they launch their counterattack as soon as, you know, the reported waves of drone strikes that you mentioned.

But there is a world in which a wounded regime is left there in place, and Donald Trump might be able to leverage prospective future Israeli rounds to tell the Iranians that the only thing standing between them and certain death is, of course, Donald Trump himself.

SCIUTTO: Behnam Ben Taleblu, thanks so much for joining us this evening.

TALEBLU: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, CNN's Fred Pleitgen, who spent a lot of time in Tehran himself, has more now on Iran's nuclear enrichment program.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is vowing severe punishment for the Israelis after those strikes carried out by Israel on targets inside Iran. Now, the Iranians are acknowledging that several of their top level military commanders have been killed, as well as also nuclear scientists. The Iranians are also saying that there was damage to residential areas as well, and that there were people who were injured on the ground as those strikes were taking place.

Now, some of the most severe casualties for the Iranians are definitely the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami, the top general in Iran and certainly someone who was very powerful, not just in Iran but in the entire Middle Eastern region. Of course, the IRGC is really very much the elite wing of Iran's military.

However, the chief of Iran's general staff of the military, Mohammad Bagheri, was also killed in the strikes. The Iranians are now acknowledging. However, one of the things that we've seen in the past with the

Iranians is that especially the Revolutionary Guard Corps certainly has a propensity and the capability to replenish their ranks in a very short period of time and continue their operations. And that is certainly something that the Iranians are vowing now.

[02:40:00]

We've been speaking in the past couple of days to senior Iranian officials, and they've been telling us that Iran has already worked up a list of targets inside Israel that they would hit in case of a strike, like the ones that we've been seeing by the Israelis over the past couple of hours. The Iranians telling us that on their target list, there is also what they call clandestine nuclear facilities of the Israelis, the weapons of choice for the Iranians in the past, of course, have been their powerful ballistic missiles, of which the country has a lot, and then also drones, which the Iranians have been using and also have been making better over the past couple of years.

The Iranians are saying that this response is going to be severe. However, the Iranians also in the past have shown that they are going to strike back at a time of their choice and also in the way that they see fit.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: A look now at how these strikes are affecting oil and the markets. As you can see, oil prices jumping. Brant crude and WTI both up more than 7 percent. The Asia pacific markets are in negative territory, all of them down nearly 1 percent. And at last check, the U.S. futures are also down. The Dow, S&P and Nasdaq all looking to go down between 1 and 2 percent.

CNN's breaking news coverage of Israels attacks on Iran's nuclear sites, military sites and military leadership. Israel says Iran has now launched drones in retaliation. I'll have the latest after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:46:19]

SCIUTTO: Let's get up to speed now with our breaking news out of the Middle East. Israel says Tehran's retaliation is underway now, this following Israels attack on targets across Iran. The Israeli military said Iran has launched more than 100 drones. Air defenses are now beginning to intercept some of those drones.

Earlier, Israel said it struck more than 100 targets inside Iran related to its nuclear program, its military and ballistic missile program, as well as several top military leaders and nuclear scientists. Iran's state television says the strikes killed the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, along with the commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps. Washington made it clear Israel was acting on its own. Israel has

announced a state of emergency in anticipation of Iranian retaliation. Many Israelis went out to stock up on food tonight.

The Israeli prime minister said. This is just the beginning of Israeli strikes on Iran. He says they're going to last days and that Israel had no choice but to launch the attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I want to assure the civilized world we will not let the world's most dangerous regime get the world's most dangerous weapons. And Iran plans to give those weapons, nuclear weapons, to its terrorist proxies. That would make the nightmare of nuclear terrorism all too real.

The increasing range of Iran's ballistic missiles would bring that nuclear nightmare to the cities of Europe, and eventually to America.

Remember, Iran calls Israel the Small Satan. It calls America the Great Satan. And this is why for decades, it's led millions in the chants of "Death to Israel" and "Death to America".

Today, Israel is responding to those genocidal calls with action and with a call of our own. Long live Israel and long live America. Our action will help make the world a much safer place.

I want to thank President Trump for his leadership in confronting Iran's nuclear weapons program. He has made clear time and again that Iran cannot have a nuclear enrichment program.

Today, it is clear that Iran is just buying for time. It refuses to agree to this basic requirement of peaceful nations. That is why we have no choice but to act and act now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Now to the other major story we've been following. A short time ago, India's prime minister visited the site of an Air India plane crash that killed hundreds of people.

Narendra Modi was born in the Gujarat region, where that passenger jet went down is unclear as to whether the black box flight recorders, cockpit voice recorders have yet been recovered. The cause of the crash remains a mystery. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner lost its signal shortly after takeoff. We are told the overall death toll has reached some 290 people and could still rise.

The London bound jet was carrying Indian, British, Canadian and Portuguese nationals. Dozens of others died on the ground as the plane hit a hostel housing doctors and medical students. The only passenger to survive somehow managed to walk away from the crash. "The Hindustan Times" reports the survivor, a British national, was sitting in seat 11A.

[02:50:04] Investigators will now focus on whether human error, mechanical failure, poor maintenance or perhaps a combination of those factors caused the crash.

CNN's Richard Quest picks up the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR AT LARGE (voice-over): The Air India 787 was in the air for less than a minute. It crashed and burst into flames just after the runway in the Indian city of Ahmedabad. With all 242 passengers and crew on board. This is the first major incident involving the Boeing 787 Dreamliner since it was introduced in 2011.

Emergency crews were met with colossal plumes of smoke, fuel-fed fires indicative of the amount of fuel the London bound jet had taken on board needed to make the ten-hour journey.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My sister was going to London. The plane crashed before she could get there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My uncle was on the plane. As soon as I got here, we began trying to call his phone, but we were unable to connect.

QUEST: India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the incident as heartbreaking beyond words. Amongst those on board were passengers from at least four different countries, India, the U.K., Portugal and Canada, according to the airline. The directorate general of civil aviation said the crew of Air India 171 did make a mayday call to air traffic control, but it's not known under what circumstances.

And data from FlightRadar24 shows that the aircrafts signal was lost. Less than a minute after takeoff, the maximum altitude reached was 625 feet. Both key bits of information, as authorities begin the investigation into the causes.

RAM MOHAN NAIDU KINJARAPU, INDIAN CIVIL AVIATION MINISTER: We are going to do a fair and thorough investigation. We are not going to spare anyone. We are not going to leave any stone unturned.

QUEST: Of great assistance will undoubtedly be this CCTV footage which shows the plane crashing. The landing gear is still down as it plummets into a residential area and a hostel being used for medical students.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: You have evidently the flaps not deployed and the landing gear down, which increases the drag. So, there are evidently a lot of problems which made it difficult for this aircraft to take flight and hold altitude.

QUEST: The Dreamliner was specifically designed for what's known as long skinny routes. Those long-haul destinations that can support high passenger numbers.

Boeing says the 787 unlocked more than 425 new nonstop routes around the world, has carried more than a billion passengers. This incident comes at a time of major restructuring and growth for Air Andia, after it was privatized and bought by the country's multinational conglomerate, the Tata Group, in 2022.

Growth was something the airlines CEO spoke enthusiastically about when I met him last week in New Delhi.

CAMPBELL WILSON, CEO, AIR INDIA: So, in addition to transforming the airline, we had to build training academies. We had to build flight simulator academies, we've had to set up a flying training school. We're setting up a maintenance base and merge four airlines.

QUEST: Campbell Wilson told me safety was part of the focus of rebuilding Air India, which has seen a few rare but high profile crashes in recent times.

The enormous loss of life from Thursdays tragedy puts the airline once again under scrutiny. It will also lead to questions for Boeing, and the investigators will be keen to know exactly how this aircraft performed at its crucial moments.

Richard Quest, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Well, parts of downtown Los Angeles currently under curfew for the third night in a row amid ongoing protests against immigration raids. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass says it will continue that curfew for a few more days, in the hope that people will get the message that we are serious. She added there will be investigations into the conduct of everyone involved, including the police department, the demonstrations are now spreading to other U.S. cities. This is a crowd of protesters in Chicago on Thursday.

In Missouri, the governor declared a state of emergency and signed an executive order activating the national guard as a precautionary measure in response to the protests.

An appeals court has now paused a ruling that required U.S. President Donald Trump to return control of Californias national guard to state leaders there.

[02:55:01]

Earlier, a federal judge ruled that Trump unlawfully federalized thousands of members of the national guard to respond to the L.A. protests. A hearing with the appeals court has been scheduled for Tuesday. All this comes after California Governor Gavin Newsom sued the Trump administration for calling in the troops without asking his consent. It's the first time a U.S. president has done so since 1965.

Thanks so much for joining. I'm Jim Sciutto in New York. Polo Sandoval has more breaking news coverage of Israels ongoing strikes on Iran next.