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10-Plus Projectiles Fired into Israel From Lebanon; War With Hezbollah Escalates As Hezbollah's Leader Nasrallah Alleged Death Shakes Region; Hezbollah Confirms Hassan Nasrallah Killed In Strike. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired September 28, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:49]

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone, welcome to CNN THIS MORNING. It is Saturday, September 28th. I'm Amara Walker alongside Danny Freeman and Jim Sciuto. We begin this morning with major breaking developments in the Middle East.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN BREAKING NEWS.

WALKER: The concerns are growing about a widening war in the Middle East. Israeli military claims it has killed the leader of Hezbollah after carrying out targeted airstrikes in Beirut. Israel says Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the terrorist organization and several commanders, were killed in a strike on what it says was Hezbollah's headquarters, though Hezbollah has not commented.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN ANCHOR: But there are concerns about a possible response. Hezbollah has fired rockets into Israel. Iran's supreme leader says its forces are standing with Hezbollah, but not mentioned specifically Nasrallah. And the chief of Israel's army warns that Israel knows how to reach anyone who threatens its citizens.

Meanwhile, the White House says President Biden has been briefed on the strikes. But Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that they were already underway when he spoke with the Israeli defense minister on Friday, and he called for a diplomatic solution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD AUSTIN, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: What I will say is that you've heard me say a number of times that an all-out war should be avoided. Diplomacy continues to be the best way forward and it's the fastest way to let displaced Israeli and Lebanese citizens return to their homes on both sides of the border.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: CNN Anchor and Chief National Security Analyst Jim Sciutto joins us now from Tel Aviv. Jim, get us up to speed.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, this news that Nasrallah has been killed, or at least Israel's estimate that he's been killed, is a significant development to say the least in an ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, and a broader one of course between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and standoff between Israel and Iran. We should stress, Hezbollah has below has not yet commented the condition of Nasrallah. I do want to speak now to CNN's Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman in Beirut. Tell us what the reaction has been there to Nasrallah's apparent killing here? Is there protest that you're seeing?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, we're not seeing any protests yet. I think people here are busier just trying to find a place to stay and food to eat after thousands of people streamed out of the southern suburbs of Beirut after the overnight strikes in that area. Now, it's important to keep in mind that Nasrallah is loved by his followers but despised by many Lebanese.

So, we are seeing that there are those on social media who are actually celebrating the claimed by Israel assassination of Hassan Nasrallah. At this point, I think the faithful of the group are waiting for an initial announcement, not surprisingly, they are always skeptical about any claims coming out of Israel.

Now, as I think I've mentioned time and time again on air, Jim, we've been trying to get some sort of either confirmation or denial from Hezbollah. It has not happened yet, but clearly if it has happened, it is a profound blow to an organization he has led since 1992. He has really become the symbol of Hezbollah, not just here in Lebanon, but across the Middle East.

Somebody who was able to essentially drive the Israelis out of southern Lebanon after a more than two-decade occupation. He's also somebody who's despised by many, for instance, in Syria, where he was critical for providing the manpower and weaponry that helped save the regime of Bashar al-Assad from his enemies.

[07:05:06]

And the worry is, of course, that if indeed Hezbollah does confirm that Nasrallah has been killed, the reaction may be quite volatile. I mean, for instance, the United States embassy north of Beirut has been provided with additional security from the Lebanese army, and it's important to keep in mind that even though U.S. officials say they were not informed beforehand of the strike that may have killed Hassan Nasrallah and that the Americans continue to talk about a diplomatic solution.

It is not lost on Hezbollah or anybody in Lebanon that the Americans even though they say they weren't involved in this strike, they were the ones who provided the 2,000-pound bombs, the bunker busters that probably, perhaps, I should stress, killed Hassan Nasrallah. So, the worry is that there could be a severe backlash against American interests in Lebanon and perhaps broadly across the Middle East.

It's a very volatile situation when the news, if the news comes out, if it is confirmed by his beloved Nasrallah has indeed been killed in Beirut, and much of Lebanon is going to be bracing for more trouble. Jim. SCIUTTO: Perhaps, Hezbollah deciding who's in charge next, and that that decision may be factoring into the land comment that. Ben Wedeman in Beirut, thanks so much.

Joining me here in Tel Aviv, CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson. Nic, virtually from the day after the October 7th attacks, when I traveled in the north, maybe you've had the same experience, Israelis will say when the job is finished in Gaza against Hamas, we, Israel, have to finish the job against Hezbollah in Lebanon, given, and just a reminder for folks at home, that you have a large swath of the northern part of Israel that has been evacuated due to those Hezbollah rocket attacks.

Is it correct to say that there is broad political support in this country for an aggressive Israeli operation against Hezbollah, perhaps including a ground invasion?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Not clear about the ground invasion, but perhaps. But certainly, for the decision to strike Hassan Nasrallah, certainly for the decisions to cripple the command and control of Hezbollah at this time, and try to neutralize their ability to fire weapons systems into Israel.

Yair Lapid, one of the principal opposition figures, another one, Yair Golan himself with military experience, have both come out and applauded what the government has done. And I was talking a little while ago with somebody up along the northern border and he told me, and I was speaking, I was up there with him two weeks ago talking to him and he felt, you could tell.

I met him earlier in the year as well, he was really down because they really felt they were being let down by the military, they're feeling it, he was living there alone, couldn't bring his family back, businesses, all of that. Today, he says, no, our trust has been restored in the military, in the IDF, but what we need them to do is to get in and go along the border and deconstruct the, the sort of safe places, the houses that Hezbollah has been using along the border.

So, that remains and I think there will be broad political support for that. The caveat here and you'll know this instinctively, that the military has already fought a hard campaign a year-long in Gaza. So, they're not going to say that they're not going to do the job and they're ready to do the job. But there will be some reservists out there who maybe hope that unless everything's at stake that they don't get called up right now.

SCIUTTO: One could imagine that an operation, given the extent of Hezbollah's forces and positions in Lebanon, could be longer, perhaps deadlier for Israeli forces. Let me ask about the, the ceasefire effort, I suppose one could say the former ceasefire effort that the U.S. invested an enormous amount of diplomatic capital in, this is the second major ceasefire effort with U.S. backing, one in Gaza now, between Lebanon and Hezbollah, that has gone nowhere.

And the feeling, I think frustration is almost an understatement among many U.S. officials, is that the Israeli prime minister was not on board for either of these efforts and took actions that either stood in the way or made them impossible. Is there any ceasefire effort in either location, substantive one that's underway right now?

ROBERTSON: The efforts are not, people are not giving up on the efforts. Those who want diplomacy to win the day are not going to stop and are going to redouble their efforts, triple their efforts, double down, all of that. But the reality is there's nowhere for it to go at the moment. The ground is absolutely not fertile. Hezbollah will be seething.

Their backers will be seething. The IDF at the moment feels it's got an advantage to press and it needs to press that all the way home. I think, you know, there's, we here in journalism are often sort of giving the first accounting of history. And I think history is going to judge this moment, whereby it's going to look very much like it was just Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's way or the highway, I'm setting the agenda.

But I think historians may look back at it and judge it differently and may analyze what this, what the Biden administration might have done differently. As much as they look at Prime Minister Netanyahu and see what he could have done differently. There's a lot that we won't know at the moment, but I think on the face of it, he's gone alone.

[07:10:44]

And one question that stands out to me, where the United States has stood shoulder to shoulder with Israel and continues, and one of the ways it's done that, at the beginning of October 7th. It had a second carrier group available to suppress any Hezbollah or Iranian attack. It had that earlier again this year when there was a threat of escalation from Iran. And every time it's come to a punch point with Hezbollah and Iran, maybe doubling down and threatening Israel, the U.S. has been there with another carrier group.

I'm not hearing, and maybe it's happening, but I don't know what your sources are telling you, but we're not hearing about another carrier group on the way.

SCIUTTO: Certainly, no announcement yet, and some, including in the U.S., have credited that large U.S. military presence, carrier groups as well as missile submarines, attack missile submarines, with deterring a broader particularly Iranian response. So, it's a fair question, because of course the concern now is how does Iran responds to this.

ROBERTSON: Yes, and part of that is going to be an Iran's calculation about what they can do, what the state of Hezbollah is? What can they reconstitute right now, what is a useful or viable fighting force to send a punch to Israel or, or, or do they not have that? Do they actually need to go away and rebuild?

The Iranian leadership is very, very cautious. We know from the margins of the UNGA where there's been discussion about reopening with negotiations with the White House, with this current White House it has to be said, about nuclear disarmament and all of that, things that they're bringing to the table again, that the Iranians like to put in a big basket, a grand bargain. But of course, they're not going to go anywhere with a grand bargain because they don't know who's going to win the U.S. election.

And if Donald Trump wins, they know that they face a very different partner, no partner at all in the White House for talks. So, that's all going to be part of their calculus about how to respond now.

SCIUTTO: And part of Israel's calculus as well. One could imagine that Netanyahu might calculate Trump in office would give him more leeway, than Harris if she would win. Nic Robertson, thanks so much joining.

Joining me now to discuss is Michael Allen, he's a member of the National Security Council, was a member of in the George W. Bush White House, former Majority Staff Director of the House Intelligence Committee. Good to have you on, Michael. Thanks so much for taking the time.

MICHAEL ALLEN, MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: Thank you for having me.

SCIUTTO: I wonder if you can begin there, the point, I was just discussing with Nic was with which is what is the level of U.S. influence right now on this crisis. The U.S. attempted to avoid a broader war by bringing the sides together for 21 day ceasefire that, that appears to be all but that now in the wake of this strike. Does the U.S. have influence over, well let's begin with the Israeli Prime Minister.

ALLEN: Jim, I don't really think we have a lot of influence right now. And it's not just because President Biden, as we would say in the United States, is a lame duck. I was struck by what the earlier reporter said about the sweep of history.

I think the administration could have read the room better. When there's been an enormous attack from Gaza, the overwhelming sentiment that I noticed in Israel, especially on visits, was that they felt like they needed to reestablish their deterrence, because clearly Iran's proxies had no pause about coming in and trying to attack them.

And I believe that over time Netanyahu made the calculation that I can't live, the state of Israel can't live with another genocidal terrorist organization on another border, in this case the northern border. So, I mean, it's great that the administration has tried so hard. Ceasefire and diplomacy is ultimately the way to go.

But I think Israel just felt like they really needed to do more than just mow the grass, as they say this time. They need to try and root and branch some of these terrorist organizations from their hiding places.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you from a strategic perspective, has Israel accomplished that, right? Because in Gaza, the intention post-October 7th was to destroy Hamas. It has certainly depleted Hamas, but Hamas remains and the Hamas leader is still alive, though presumably hiding in the tunnels under there. Hezbollah is bigger, it's spread out more in a larger country, larger territory, it's got more tunnels, more missiles, longer range, et cetera. From a strategic perspective, do these operations, and I should say ongoing operations, do they destroy or just weaken these groups for a time? In other words, can they recover?

[07:15:44]

ALLEN: I think they can definitely recover, especially with sort of the ideology in the Middle East, and the way things are going. But Hezbollah in particular, we're just going to have to see how effective the Israelis have been in the last 10 days. Of course, you've seen everything from a commando raid to take out a drone factory embedded inside of a mountain, the pager attacks, and now this. We'll have to see just how much Hezbollah has been degraded.

I think the Israelis have got a big fight ahead of them, especially if they go in with tanks. But I do feel like they needed to do more. They needed to try to substantially degrade these terrorist organizations instead of just trying to strategically blow up some missile sites from time to time. It's high risk, but I felt like it's what was called for if you get inside the mind of the Israelis and examine the way they felt after October 7th.

SCIUTTO: Clearly, has below has suffered devastating blows here according to Israel its leaders now dead, thousands of, of has below fighters were struck in injured some killed in that pager attack and you've had numerous weapons that depots destroyed. In addition to that, you had Iran's attempted massive attack in April of this year, those dozens of drones and missiles that was neutralized before they hit the target. Is it possible? And I certainly don't want to underestimate the kept capabilities of either Iran or has the left but is it possible uh -- that their threat to Israel was overstated, right? I mean that Israel has a greater ability to neutralize that threat than we knew prior to these recent weeks and months.

ALLEN: Now I totally agree with you. When you think about just how effective the United States and its allies were along with Israel in April, I think that surprised a lot of us. I think we would have thought that more of the drones or cruise missiles from Iran would have gotten through. Instead, they had a high interception rate.

And I know that is what is something that the Iranians are dealing with with a certain amount of consternation this morning. They know they need to hit back. They're not sure they won't have a repeat of what they tried last April and be seen as losing. So, it's definitely something that is enormous and something that the Israelis with along with the United States have a real advantage over a run over. So, all is in Iran's court, what are they going to do they can try to hit something in Israel themselves or just continue to use proxies not only in the middle east but maybe against embassies around the world.

SCIUTTO: Yes, that's a good it's a good point it were they to attempt something and that be thwarted as well that gets to the diminution of their own deterrent effect one, one might one might guess. Michael Allen, I appreciate hearing your analysis. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.

ALLEN: Thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: We do continue to follow major developments in the Middle East throughout the morning Including the breaking news this morning Israel saying it has killed the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, in a massive strike in southern Beirut on Friday. We'll be back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:23:57]

SCIUTTO: continue to follow breaking news out of the Middle East the Israeli military says it is now confident that its strike on Friday in Southern Beirut has killed Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah, based on multiple sources of intelligence. We should note there has been no official word from Hezbollah. Israel claims responsibility for what it called a targeted attack as well on missile storage sites in Beirut, saying that in addition to those strikes as well as the strike targeting the command center it has killed not just Nasrallah but other top Hezbollah commanders. The IDF says it is now conducting more airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs today. Hezbollah has launched rockets into Southern Israel. No reports of injuries from these attacks by Hezbollah.

Iran's supreme leader is backing Hezbollah saying, "All regional resistance forces are now standing with them." We're joined now by CNN international correspondent. Jeremy Diamond in Haifa. Jeremy, as you heard, Iran says it is now weighing its next moves, which, of course, adding to concerns of a wider war here. You've been here for months, going back to October 7th. What is the level of concern in Israel that Iran will attack it directly?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that concern has gone up and down depending on the news. I think we are once again at a moment where that tension is very present, and that threat is very real. But I also think we have to acknowledge that there are a couple of different scenarios, and at this point, nobody really knows which direction this is going to go in. I mean, Hezbollah is one of Iran's most powerful proxy groups in the region.

Hassan Nasrallah himself built Hezbollah over the course of the last three decades into one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East. And Iran will certainly be reeling from what appears to be the death of Hassan Nasrallah, a very charismatic figure who, you know, managed Hezbollah's military operations very, very closely and directly. The question now is, will Iran take control of Hezbollah more directly? Who -- will they try and put somebody in Nasrallah's place?

And then, will they direct Hezbollah to carry out a significant wave of attacks against Israel, perhaps even launching an all-out war or responding with an all-out war? Or will it choose another path, which is to tell Hezbollah to stand down for the moment, to regroup, and to reset itself effectively and determine what the next course of action actually is?

And I think if we're being honest, we don't know which path Iran and Hezbollah's, you know, remaining or subsequent leadership will actually choose. We have expected that in the event of an all-out retaliation, that Hezbollah would carry out massive waves of attacks against Israel, and that just hasn't happened.

And it speaks to the body blow after body blow that the Israeli military has delivered to Hezbollah's organizational structure, but also many of its weapons capacities, its rocket launchers over the course of thousands of airstrikes that it has conducted over the course of the last week and a half. And so it's very clear that Hezbollah is not only in disarray at the moment, but also that its capabilities have been reduced, at least for the time being. But it's also important to remember that Hezbollah is more than just Hassan Nasrallah. It's more than just its senior leadership. They have tens of thousands of fighters, and they also have a rocket and missile arsenal in the hundreds of thousands.

It's not clear exactly how much of that arsenal has actually been destroyed by the Israeli military over the course of the last week but I think it's, it's probably safe to assume that much of that arsenal is certainly still are very much intact and, and is certainly still capable of being fired once has baller regroups and gets its act together should it choose to do so.

SCIUTTO: Well, we should remember, it was just a few weeks ago when Israel says that it's stopped a massive Hezbollah missile and rocket barrage a half hour or so, minutes before it was set to take place in that early Sunday morning preemptive strike. Hard to say how many times Hezbollah may have attempted such an attack. Jeremy Diamond in Haifa, thanks so much.

Joining me now is CNN Military Analyst, retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Good to have you, particularly given your background is intelligence. Can you describe to us the degree of this intelligence success, and that Israel tracked down, it says, the leader of Hezbollah, who had spent years in hiding because of this very threat. Yet they say they found his location and was able to destroy that location and kill him and other senior commanders what would have gone into such an operation in advance

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, Jim that would be incredible preparation and so this is kind of the intelligence preparation of the battle space graduate level coursework here, and one of the key things to think about here is that this took a very, very long time, Jim, for them to do. They had to follow not only Nasrallah's movements, but they had to figure out what a matter to his pattern of life. So, he was the ultimate for the Israelis. He was the ultimate high-value target.

And kind of like when the U.S. was going after bin Laden, the Israelis were following Nasrallah's moves, and they had some challenges. Nasrallah did not communicate using a pager system. He did not communicate using cell phones as far as we know. And it was one of those things that they were able to piece together from different sources of intelligence.

[07:30:00]

They use signals intelligence, human intelligence, imagery. All those pieces came together, and they determined not only where he was, but, you know, what times he would go in and out of these places, how he would address his followers, you know, through T.V. or other means.

And they would really figure out exactly what he was doing. And that was a really, I think, key to them being able to locate him. And then, if everything bears out like the IDF says, it will show that they were going in and they knew precisely where he was at that particular moment when they struck those areas in south Beirut.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you about the military, the weapons used here. Because with the bin Laden attack, similar and that took years to find them, and that was an intelligence coup.

The U.S. had military options, which, then-President Obama considered, which included quite large munitions. And part of the reason, as I -- as I remember it that he did not use such musicians and intent -- instead, ordered a higher risk SEAL operation was the concern about civilian casualties.

Did Israel have another option here than to level several buildings with presumed civilian casualties, particularly when you look at the landscape following the attack? Did it have other realistic options to take out Nasrallah that would have minimized civilian casualties?

LEIGHTON: Potentially, and this is a very difficult thing, because the targets are actually a bit different. When it came to the bin Laden raid, you're absolutely right. President Obama did have that option of using bombs, you know, putting aircraft over the target, and dropping bombs, either manned aircraft or drones.

And drones were also being considered by the Obama administration in the bin Laden raid. The Israelis could have done something like that.

However, one of the key differences is that bin Laden was in an above ground compound. Nasrallah was in a -- an underground compound -- a very extensive underground compound that was below apartment buildings that were inhabited by basically normal people, and that was a huge challenge for the Israelis.

They could potentially have used a special operations team to go in there at very, very high risk. The risk for them would have been much greater than it was for SEAL Team Six when they went in and did the bin Laden raid.

I thought that was still a very risky -- highly risky operation that the U.S. conducted back in 2011.

In this particular case, the Israelis would have had to deal with a whole warren of roads and alleys, and you know, things that you know would have possibly resulted in a major compromise of the operation. And so, they figured it was easy. They did a cost benefit analysis, basically, and they figured it was easier and more effective for them to use aircraft.

In this particular case, they used F-15s from Hudson Air Base to go in and conduct this operation. And they did, so probably using 2,000- pound bombs.

(CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: OK.

We'll have to -- we'll have to leave it there. We'll have to leave it there. Certainly, an extensive operation. Colonel Cedric Leighton, thanks so much. We will have more breaking news coverage on this strike on the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN "BREAKING NEWS".

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:38:14]

SCIUTTO: The "BREAKING NEWS" just in to CNN, and that is that Hezbollah has now confirmed that its leader, Hassan Nasrallah is dead. You remember earlier this morning, we reported that the Israeli military announced it believed that yesterday's strike on a compound in southern Beirut had killed the Hezbollah leader.

This is now the first report from Hezbollah, confirming his death. CNN's Ben Wedeman joins us now from Beirut.

I wonder, Ben, has Hezbollah given any indication as to who will replace Nasrallah, who's led Hezbollah for more than three decades?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, they have not. I mean, it's significant to recall that back in 1992, when Abbas Musawi, his predecessor was assassinated -- just hearing a large explosion in the background. We'll just step aside while you zoom in on that.

When his predecessor was assassinated in 1992, he was very quickly replaced. But those were different times. That was when Hezbollah was a much smaller organization and it had not sustained the kind of blows that it has since Tuesday before last.

Now, obviously, the organization is clearly in a state of disarray, having lost many of its senior leaders, in addition now to Hassan Nasrallah.

Now, just to give some immediate reaction, we understand that people in the streets, supporters of Hezbollah are mourning very loudly, screaming, I was told in the streets, and we did hear some gunfire coming from the southern suburbs of Beirut, probably gunfire being fired by Hezbollah supporters too, as their expression of mourning for the death of their leader.

[07:40:03]

Keep in mind, Jim, that he has run the organization since 1992. So, for many of the young militants who are members of Hezbollah, he is the only leader they have ever known, and he is a larger-than-life figure for many in the Shia community.

He is somebody who, even the Israelis, considered a formidable foe. He won, for many, in the Israeli military, their grudging respect for his management of a guerrilla war that drove the Israelis out of southern Lebanon after more than two decades of occupation in May 2000.

He is somebody who has turned what was a small guerilla organization into a formidable political force on the Lebanese scene, with ministers in parliament, and a very much threw its weight around as far as many other Lebanese were concerned.

But definitely, this is a severe, yet another severe body blow to Hezbollah. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Reading now from some of the statement from Hezbollah confirming his death, they describe him as the master of resistance, a righteous servant. They say, he will be a great martyr as well.

And then, they end by with a line to what it calls the honorable fighters, saying, you are bound by the pledge of loyalty and commitment to resistance and sacrifice until victory.

No specific mention in this statement of planned retaliation. But I wonder, Ben, should we expect such a statement in the coming hours or days? Or should we -- or might a retaliation come without such a comment? I know that Iran has made its own statements about this, and says that it stands by -- stands by Hezbollah.

WEDEMAN: I think Hezbollah will probably make that statement with actions rather than words. I think that at this point, probably, the remaining leadership over the organization realize the -- realizes that Hezbollah is really got its back to the wall after losing its entire top echelon of military leaders, that they have little choice at this point than to carry on fighting.

The question is, to what extent that can they and it's important to keep in mind, though, even though, last Wednesday, Hezbollah, for the first time, fired a ballistic missile that was intercepted over Tel Aviv, but it still has many other long range precision missiles that it has not used.

It's also worth noting that there is a feeling that Iran has, in a sense, left Hezbollah out to dry, despite investing billions of dollars over the year in building up its military capabilities with training and ammunition and supplies and so forth.

But by and large, Iran has essentially sat on the sidelines, as Hezbollah, certainly in the last two weeks, has been mauled, and all the Iranians have done until now is issue, declaration after declaration, but nothing palpable on the ground, causing it to a certain extent, a fair amount of unhappiness among those within Hezbollah who, before had put their faith in Tehran, as sort of the big brother who would come to their rescue.

Iran did not come to the rescue of Hamas, and it doesn't appear that it's about to come to the rescue of Hezbollah either. Jim.

SCIUTTO: That's a good point Ben Wedeman in Beirut.

The news, as just reported, is that Hezbollah has now confirmed the death of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah. This follows an Israeli announcement earlier this morning, local time, that Israel believes it had killed Nasrallah, in a strike on Friday in Beirut.

We will be right back with more news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:47:23]

WALKER: "BREAKING NEWS" within the past few minutes, Hezbollah confirmed the death of leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli air strike on Friday.

FREEMAN: Senior international correspondent Ben Wiedeman has more on Nasrallah's rise to power.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WEDEMAN (voice over): Hassan Nasrallah was hailed as a resistance fighter by his admirers and a terrorist by his adversaries.

He became secretary general of Hezbollah in 1992 after Israel assassinated his predecessor. In his early 30s at the time, he went on to lead his group to become a formidable military force and a major player in Lebanese and regional politics.

A decade earlier, Nasrallah attended a theological seminary in Najaf Iraq and returned to his native Lebanon, where during the 1982 Israeli invasion, he urged his supporters to take up arms against the invaders.

The beginnings of what became Hezbollah. Literally meaning, the Party of God. The group was backed by Iran and led by local clerics to harass the Israeli occupiers.

The group is believed to have been behind a series of terrorist attacks in Lebanon and abroad, and during the 1980s took dozens of Westerners and Lebanon hostage.

The growth of Hezbollah coincided with the emergence of the previously downtrodden and neglected Shia community in Lebanon as a major force in the country. Nasrallah emerged as an adept guerilla commander, leading an unrelenting campaign against Israeli forces, during which his eldest son was killed in action. The United States designated the group a terrorist organization in 1997. Hezbollah's struggle against Israeli forces on Lebanese soil continued until 2000, when, in perhaps, his proudest moment, Israeli troops withdrew unconditionally from southern Lebanon.

Israel, which has nuclear weapons and the best air force in the region, I swear to God, he said, it is weaker than a spider's web.

But in 2006, Israel and Lebanon were again at war. The month-long conflict left at least 1,000 Lebanese civilians dead and devastated much of the country's infrastructure.

Israel tried and failed to destroy Hezbollah, which came out stronger than ever before.

After the war, his focus turned inward on his homeland, Lebanon, where Hezbollah increasingly became a key player in the country's complicated politics and expanded its network of social services.

[07:50:10]

When war broke out in neighboring Syria in 2011, Nasrallah deployed Hezbollah fighters to shore up President Bashar al-Assad's regime. And also, provided support to Iraq during its war against ISIS.

Iran was quick to reward Nasrallah with money, weapons, and logistical support. But critics say his alliance with Tehran inflamed sectarian tensions and weakened his credibility as a self-styled defender of the Palestinian people.

When the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, Hezbollah's ally, attacked Israel on the seventh of October 2023, killing more than 1200 people and abducting more than 250 others, Hezbollah began firing into Israel, opening what it called a support front for Gaza.

For more than 11 months, Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire across the border. Nasrallah said this would only stop once the war in Gaza came to an end.

Instead, more fighting and death followed. In the form of covert operations by Israel, which detonated Hezbollah's wireless communications devices in broad daylight for two days in a row.

A weekend, Nasrallah called it an unprecedented blow. Then, Israel's bombing campaign killed hundreds across Lebanon. Yet, until the very end, Hassan Nasrallah remained defiant.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[07:56:08]

WALKER: What was once Hurricane Helene is now a post tropical cyclone, but the damage the storm has left behind will take months -- many months, to clean up.

Asheville, North Carolina, is one of the hardest hit places, and at least six people were killed across North Carolina. Record rain and historic flooding swamped Asheville. This drone video you see right here shows just some of the damage. You can see water absolutely everywhere.

CNN's Isabel Rosales is in Asheville with the latest. Isabel, how are things looking there this morning?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Danny and Amara.

Yes, as the sun has come up, we're really getting our first look at the aftermath of this thing, now that a lot of the flood water has thankfully receded. But look at this mess.

Yesterday, I wouldn't have been able to walk across here because the water would have been way over my head. I can tell, because there is a water line over there full of debris. But now, I'm walking through three inches of this thick mud, just absolutely covering the roadway, revealing weird debris, like furniture.

Look at this door right over there. And this, can you tell what this is? This is a thick metal power pole. This tells you, right here, the strength, the power of the roaring waters of the Swannanoa River as it flooded here into the roadway. The river is just a couple of blocks away. It is incredible to see this, what has been left behind.

Now, at its highest point, the river crested to 27 feet. That shattered a record. And even today, even though you're seeing this mud, there is still plenty of roads that are impassable. That river and the French Broad River both at a major flood stage still.

Listen, recovery is going to take a long, long time. I spoke with Patrick right there, the man in the yellow. He is the owner of this warehouse. That's a milk distribution warehouse. Because when the power went out, even, even, even as they clean this up, he is still facing major issues, because there is no power.

When the power went out yesterday, his milk supply, he couldn't keep that refrigerated. So, probably tens of thousands of dollars-worth of milk product, all of that spoiled. These business owners are in for a rough time here at Biltmore Village -- to take a long, long time to get to the other stage.

Let's take a look at the drone from up above, so you can get a clearer picture here of just this mess left behind.

You saw drone images from yesterday showing all of that water, but now, this is what's left behind, just mud and dirtiness.

I also want to let you know that for the residents here, communication is a major problem. Cell carriers, none of them are working, so, they are unable to get in touch with loved ones outside of Asheville, and electricity is out.

So, Danny, Amara, this is going to take a while.

WALKER: It sure looks like it just what a mess there behind you. And looks like a wooden door on its side there in the background.

Isabel Rosales, thank you so much.

Well, we continue to follow major developments in the Middle East throughout the morning. We'll have much more on that after a quick break.

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