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Hezbollah Confirms Hassan Nasrallah Killed In Israeli Strike; Hezbollah Confirms The Death Of Hassan Nasrallah; Hezbollah Confirms That Leader Hassan Nasrallah Killed In Israeli Airstrike; 49 Plus Deaths, Widespread Damage And Rescue From Helene. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired September 28, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

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[08:01:24]

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning everyone. Welcome to CNN This Morning. It is Saturday, September 28. I am Amra Walker, alongside Danny Freeman and Jim Sciutto. We begin this morning with major- breaking developments in the Middle East.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

WALKER: The concerns continue to grow about the possibility of a widening war. Now that Hezbollah has confirmed its leader, Hassan Nasrallah was killed in Israeli airstrikes in Beirut. Nasrallah, who led the Iran backed militant group for more than three decades, was killed in a targeted strike on Hezbollah's headquarters in Lebanon's capital.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now there are concerns about the possibility of a retaliatory response Hezbollah launching rockets into northern Israel before acknowledging Nasrallah death. Meanwhile, Iran's supreme leader says its forces are standing with Hezbollah, and the chief of Israel's army warns that Israel knows how to reach anyone who threatens its citizens.

WALKER: All right. Let's go back to Jim Sciutto, who has been standing by live in Tel Aviv. Jim.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, just a short time ago, Hezbollah confirmed that its leader Hassan Nasrallah is dead, killed in an Israeli air strike. It is a significant development in this ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, and of course, the concern now is of a wider war in the region. CNN Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman has been in Beirut.

Ben, I understand you interviewed Nasrallah in the past. Can you describe just how central he was to Hezbollah as an organization today, following his leadership of the group for more than 30 years.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he was the only leader the followers of Hezbollah knew many of them who grew up with him. He -- I interviewed him back in 1997 in the middle of when Hezbollah was totally focused on trying to drive Israeli forces out of South Lebanon. And I can tell you he was a very intelligent, well- spoken man who clearly had the managerial abilities to run not just a guerilla war against Israel, but also to expand the organization beyond merely a guerilla force, but into a political force as well, one that many Lebanese have found it very hard to reckon with, a force that a political force that oftentimes threw its weight around. But he was somebody who even the Israelis had grudging respect for as a formidable foe, who really put Israel's abilities to the test, not only during that protracted guerrilla war in South Lebanon, but for instance, in 2006 when the Israelis thought they would be able to easily defeat or even destroy Hezbollah during that war, but in fact, they were essentially fought to a standstill by Hezbollah.

Now, just to give you a feeling, we've been hearing occasional heavy machine gun fire here from our position in Beirut. Clearly, Hezbollah followers very angry at this news, the worry is that this could become a somewhat unstable security situation, given that many of the people who lived in South Beirut, where Hezbollah had a strong presence, have now left that area and are dispersed throughout the city. We understand that many of those who left South Beirut and are camped out on the roadways and parks and whatnot, many of them are deeply distressed to hear this news. As I said, he's a leader who has been around since 1992 a very strong presence, certainly in the Shia community, but also in Lebanon broadly, somebody who, as the saying goes, he was a terrorist to some, but a freedom fighter to many others. Jim.

[08:05:33]

SCIUTTO: And presided over the organization as it grew its arsenal enormously with Iranian help. Ben Wedemann in Beirut. Thanks so much.

CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nick Robertson is here with me in Tel Aviv. I wonder you and I have discussed this for some time, that this strike on Nasrallah did not develop over hours or days or weeks or months, but over many, many years, that he was a target of Israel for years, and that, I imagine, what was behind this attack took years of developing of development of intelligence and other -- other means to carry this out successfully.

NICK ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Undoubtedly. But ultimately, it took the sign-off from the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his office released a photograph of him signing off on this strike yesterday, and the IDF and the Air Force would have known exactly what they were doing, precisely where he was, precisely how many meters below ground, precisely which bombs to use, precisely how long the fuses should be set for how deep those explosives should go. That big red plume we saw coming up, that was all the result of what the IDF would say was be 20 years of planning that developing the intelligence source, knowing which Wi-Fi systems to tap into, which CCTV cameras in which corner stores unwittingly became eyes and potential ears for the IDF in this multifaceted system, which has only grown, one can say wings, because of the ability and the omnipresence now of drones that now just changed not only the landscape of a battlefield but the landscape of the preparation for that battle. So all of this information the IDF would have had. SCIUTTO: Can we presume that there was a human element to this

intelligence as well, given not just the strike on Nasrallah but other Hezbollah leaders, as well as this enormous attack on pagers that targeted thousands of Hezbollah fighters. But does that signal that Hezbollah is infiltrated, and that part of its reaction now is trying to figure out where those holes are?

ROBERTSON: Hezbollah has always been a very security conscious, very aware of not only the internal enemies with inside Lebanon, as Ben was mentioning there, but the external enemies that they declared, like Israel and they would have recognized Israel was incredibly sophisticated, and would have tried to penetrate them with intelligence operatives. And organizations like the Mossad are very skilled at doing that. Witness. They haven't said they were responsible, but witnessed the pages and how long that was in planning that they went into the pockets of 5,000 Hezbollah commanders and then eventually exploded.

So it's a patient business where you try to find people who have a grievance with the organization or have, you know, a financial reason, or a honey trap, or whatever, the multitude of different ways it is to co-op somebody. At times beginning they're not even realizing that.

I mean, look, Israel has just prosecuted a man here in Israel for essentially being in the pocket of the Iranians, and possibly unwittingly, to a degree, some of the accounts of some of the developments that we've heard over recent weeks.

SCIUTTO: There are always vulnerabilities, and one could imagine that Israel exposed and took advantage of those in the case of Hezbollah. Nick Robertson, thanks so much.

There are so many repercussions to this. I do want to go now to Ian Bremmer. He is with the International the Eurasia Group, a political risk and research firm. Ian Bremmer, the concern has been for some time about an expansion of this war that started in Gaza following the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas. You now have what can only be described as an expanding conflict on the northern border here, perhaps war already, but are we already in that greater, multi-front conflict that many had feared?

IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT, EURASIA GROUP: Sure we are, Jim. But the question is whether Israeli intelligence technology and military asymmetries means that the impact of that war, at least in the near term, is a lot less than many of. U.S. would have feared.

[08:10:01]

You know, I've been talking to a lot of the Middle East leaders in New York over the last several days. And of course, there's a lot of outrage, but there's also a lot of sense that Hezbollah is a paper tiger, and those views will only get stronger over the last several hours, given what Israel has been able to inflict the damage they've been able to inflict on Hezbollah. So, I mean, you're going to have an enormous number of Palestinians and others that will be radicalized on the back of all of these acts. But what can they concretely do? What would it mean if Hezbollah today decides to declare all-out war on Israel? What would the implications of that actually be in terms of the fighting, both for Israel itself and more broadly? And the answer may be less severe than people have thought.

So I think this is a really big deal, clearly, in terms of the degrading of Hezbollah's capabilities. And of course, the country that is has to be thinking the most seriously about this strategically is Iran, a country whose leaders have repeated that they do not want to fall into the Israeli trap of hitting Israel and getting itself drawn into a war with Israel and the United States. The risks attended to that have to feel a lot greater if you are Tehran today.

SCIUTTO: Okay. Let me ask you if Hezbollah has proven to be a paper tiger. Hezbollah is one of Iran's biggest points of influence against Israel, a proxy force capable it was thought to striking Israel with great effect as part of the projection of Iran's own power. So, if Hezbollah is weaker than imagined, is Iran weaker than imagined, as relates to Israel?

BREMMER: That's the right question. I mean, you know, the Iranian vice president who I spoke with a few days ago was talking about how Iran had proven that the Iron Dome was not invulnerable because they were able to penetrate it when they hit back in April. That's certainly not my view. That's not the Israeli view or the American view. I think the broader view is that Iran is weaker and more vulnerable. So I think that says two things. There are two questions that should be on everyone's mind.

The first is, to what extent Israel would consider itself expanding this war to Iran in order to neutralize not only their military but also their nascent nuclear threat. And does Israel have that kind of intelligence capabilities? That's an open question.

The second is, if you're Iran, the desire to get a nuclear deterrent yourself becomes far more important in this after these attacks. I mean, you remember, the United States has been talking for many years about a complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization of North Korea. Well, they weren't able to accomplish that. In fact, North Korea's strength even got former President Trump to go and talk and negotiate with Kim Jong Un Well, I mean, you know, Iran would be in a radically different position today if they had nukes. I mean, you know, Hussein would have been in very different position if he had nukes, as opposed to just people thought he was getting nukes right? He probably wouldn't be lying dead.

So I do think that there are a lot of big questions that are in the backs of leaders minds today that are a little different, a little sharper than they were a week ago, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes. To your point, I mean, I think the comparison to North Korea is not undue, and the thinking had been that North Korea calculated its only means of survival was a nuclear weapon outgunned, as it were, by South Korea and the U.S. Is Iran more likely to make that same conclusion? And then the question becomes, if so, how does Israel respond? Does it immediately attack those facilities? BREMMER: I think Iran is more likely to conclude that they need a nuclear deterrent quickly, but they're also more likely to conclude, given how risky that would be, that they should try to reach out and engage with the United States and the old gang is back together. I mean, you know the president who was a surprise win reformists in the Iranian context, but his vice president, his foreign minister, his chief negotiators, these are the people that put together the JCPOA, the old Iranian nuclear deal with the United States and the international community. They have clearly said over the past several days that they want to reengage, and they have clearly said that they hope that that's something that can be done quickly.

[08:15:08]

Should they be trusted? Absolutely not. Should they be quietly engaged with in this environment? Sure, they're a lot weaker. I think that's going to be interesting. So I think both of those things are likely happening at the same time.

SCIUTTO: And with the question as to the results of the U.S. election, because one might presume quite different approaches to the region from Harris and Trump. Ian Bremmer, thanks so much as always.

BREMMER: Good to see you Jim.

SCIUTTO: And we will continue our breaking news coverage on the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, now confirmed by the group. We'll be back right after a short break.

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[08:20:30]

SCIUTTO: We're now in the Breaking News. We've been following this morning, Hezbollah has now confirmed the death of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah. This follows an Israeli air strike yesterday in southern Beirut. Joining me now, Cnn International Correspondent Jeremy Diamond. He is in Haifa.

Jeremy, I understand we've just been hearing from IDF spokesperson, Admiral Daniel Hagari with the latest what was the news?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Admiral Daniel Hagari, and you know the first time that we have actually heard him directly say the news that Hassan Nasrallah was killed in this Israeli strike yesterday. Yesterday, when he came out, he had only said that it was a strike on Hezbollah Central Headquarters, but now confirming that it was indeed to target and successfully kill Hassan Nasrallah. His announcement came moments after Hezbollah itself acknowledged for the first time that Nasrallah was indeed killed in this strike.

Hagari also defended the legitimacy of this target, as we are learning of this mounting death toll in Beirut from this strike, as multiple residential buildings were flattened in a strike targeting this underground compounds that the Israeli military said was beneath those buildings. He said that he believes -- Hagari said that he believes this was a legitimate target under international law, and accused Hezbollah of using the civilians in the area as human shields.

We have heard this language, of course, before from the Israeli military, not only in this case, in Lebanon, but also multiple times before in Gaza. He also talked about what is going to come next in terms of the possibility of retaliatory attacks on Israel that the Home Front Command guidelines are being changed for central Israel, limiting gatherings to less than 1,000 people in central Israel, telling people to take necessary precautions. But clearly, at this point, we are not seeing any kind of major, major changes in the guidance to civilians here in Israel. And part of that stems from the fact that, as I've been speaking with Israeli officials over the last few hours, it's become very clear that they believe that Hezbollah is currently in disarray, not only because of the death of Hassan Nasrallah, but also because Israel has killed many of most, I should say, the overwhelming majority, of Hezbollah senior commanders over the course of the last week and a half, they believe Hezbollah is in disarray, and critically, that their operational capabilities have also been significantly disabled, as the Israeli military on Monday, for example, carried out strikes on more than 1,600 targets.

They believe that those targets successfully took out many of the rocket launchers and weapons depots that could have been used to fire thousands of rockets per day against Israel, the kind of massive retaliatory scenario that Israel has been anticipating, but that has not come to pass. And so now, Israeli officials believe that it is these attacks over the course of the last 10 days that have not only put Hezbollah designated Hezbollah's command and control structure, but also degraded its operational ability to actually carry out these attacks, even if it chose to do so.

SCIUTTO: Jeremy Diamond, thanks so much. The Israel Defense Forces say that 140 Hezbollah targets have been struck by Israeli forces since Friday night, that includes the strike on the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The IDF says, in addition, it targeted weapons storage facilities, production sites, and other infrastructure embedded underneath residential buildings in Beirut.

Joining me now is major Doron Spielman. He is a spokesman for the IDF. Major, thanks so much for joining us.

MAJOR DORON SPIELMAN, IDF SPOKESMAN: Thank you for having you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: First, I wonder, if you can describe, does Israel have a view as to who will replace Nasrallah as the leader of Hezbollah?

SPIELMAN: You know, I think right now, Israel is dealing with the fact that the most vicious terror regime in the world and its diabolical leader, which has been the head of that regime much longer than the leaders of most country put in, trained under Hezbollah's philosophy, directed all of Hezbollah, all of their architecture, committed that organization to destruction of Israel is now out of the picture. I'm sure that there will be those that are vying for the post. However, what they can tell you. No one is going to reach that post without the approval of Iran.

We know that Iran and Israeli calling the shots on this. And I'm sure whoever's going up to that post is going to look around and realize everyone around them has been eliminated, the entire first and second layer staff and that's what they're walking into in terms of position, as long as they're threatening Israel and not allowing Israel's civilians to go back to their homes, which is really what this is all about. Then, as Israel said, everybody and anything is open for a target.

[08:25:22]

SCIUTTO: Hezbollah has long been viewed as one of Iran's tools, weapons against Israel, in addition to other proxies in the region. If Hezbollah is severely depleted, as it appears, it is certainly at the senior levels, is Iran, therefore, less threatening to Israel? Is it weaker than it was, say, a month ago?

SPIELMAN: You know, I think we'd be very cautious before saying that Iran has been weakened. Again, rockets went off just a few minutes ago. Just over my home, on my way here, there was a rocket that was intercepted, and I had to deal with my children, who were very, very scared.

We're not going to, you know wage that Iran, which is the largest supporter of terrorism the entire world, is weakened. What they do know is that they've been hiding for years behind their proxies being able to destroy and attack Israel, terrorize Israeli civilians without paying the price. What they see now is their proxy, Hezbollah, which has forced their people out of their home and tortured their own people, and did all their weaponry behind Lebanese civilians is now paying a very serious price.

SCIUTTO: CNN story out a short time ago describing how among U.S. officials, there are fears now of a wider conflict in the Middle East, which, as you know, the U.S. has been seeking to avoid, and that was part of the motivation behind ceasefire talks as relates to Lebanon, Hezbollah, and Israel. Earlier ceasefire talks as related to Gaza, did Israel carry out this attack over us objections?

SPIELMAN: You know, Israel carried out this attack because, as we've said from the beginning, Hezbollah is what stands in the way of Israeli civilians moving north and peace in the entire northern part of the country. Israel clearly felt that that Nasrallah is a major target. He's calling all the shots, as is the second command.

We work very closely with the United States to our greatest ally, but Israel, at the end of the day, has independence to try to fulfill its military objectives in order to protect its own people.

SCIUTTO: The truth is, though, that U.S. officials been frustrated by their relationship, certainly in the White House, with Benjamin Netanyahu, and the perception is that the U.S. has invested diplomatic and other capital and backed Israel, certainly militarily since October 7th and prior to October 7th, but that Netanyahu isn't returning the favor, as it were, for instance, in terms of getting a ceasefire And hostage release deal across the finish line in Gaza. Is that a fair criticism? SPIELMAN: I can tell you, Jim, that you know, the last year has been the greatest challenge in this history. We're threatened by seven different fronts, the Houthis, and Yemen, Hezbollah in the north, Hamas in Gaza, and that's just to name a few. This is the hour that Israel will look back, and the world will look back and say, who stands by Israel in this hour and the U.S., I'm not a politician. I'm here on behalf of the army has been the greatest friend and has supported Israel and understands our objectives regarding a ceasefire. For an entire year, Hezbollah has been firing rockets, over 9,000 rockets, missiles, and killer drones, and no one talked about a ceasefire.

Now that Israel is actually taking the assertion to try to protect its civilians. We're calling for a ceasefire, as we've said, as the Israeli army says, that we're open for anything, as long as Israeli civilians can go back to home, and Hezbollah withdrawals beyond the Litani. What we know is that right now, Hezbollah, every one of those rockets and missiles is inside one of their own homes, their civilian homes. You've seen the pictures. They don't care about Lebanese civilians. They don't care about Israeli civilians in the world. Senator demanding Israel to have a ceasefire should be demanding that Hezbollah pull out.

SCIUTTO: If Hezbollah does not withdraw to the Litani River. Is Israel prepared to send in ground forces?

SPIELMAN: We have made preparations, and we've said very clearly that all the options are on the table. Our ground forces have been training over the last few days, the last few weeks. It's not something we want to do. We don't want to send our sons and daughters. I don't want to send my children into Lebanon to fight Hezbollah, who's been hiding beneath the ground and is probably waiting for them. So the last thing I want to do, however, I just came from the North. It's a ghost town with rockets and missiles falling everywhere. We just have no choice. I mean, it's what are we not going to bring our civilians back home? It's a terrible choice.

SCIUTTO: I've spent a lot of time up north since those areas have been evacuated. Spoken to North northern residents who said, for some time they want the country to and they use the phrase finish the job in the north. I do want to ask you, because we discussed this when we spoke earlier this morning. Has Israel made any estimate, or made any progress on estimates as to the number of civilian casualties in this strike? Because the munitions used were quite enormous. We've all seen the pictures of the devastation following. And there were six, I believe, apartment blocks above that, above that bunker.

SPIELMAN: It's a very big concern. It's something that the IDF and every single one of our strikes. Things we go to enormous pains to try to limit civilian casualties in this place. Unfortunately, Nasrallah was not located in his home in a secure location. He was located in the command and control center with all of his upper level staff underneath the civilian complex. It's a very, very difficult decision to do something like this, and as the day unfolds, of course, will report back. But what I can tell you is we know this is the challenge that Hamas

and Hezbollah put in front of us. They protect all of their assets with civilians, hoping that one day their civilians will die, so they can turn to the world and say, you know, look at the aggressor. And hopefully the world knows. We know that this is not the case. We want peace with our -- for our own people, and with the Lebanese people, with no war with the Lebanese people, only with Hezbollah.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Before we go, does Israel have any indication that Iranian commanders were present at that site, the site of the attack, and that Iranian commanders were killed as well?

SPIELMAN: I don't have that information right now, but what I can tell you is in numerous of the other strikes that took place, there were Iranian commanders that were there. They work hand in hand with us on a day to day basis.

SCIUTTO: Major Doron Spielman, thanks so much for joining us giving those updates.

SPIELMAN: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, still to come, thousands of people are now fleeing Lebanon as Israeli airstrikes continue across large parts of the country. We're going to take a look at the humanitarian impact of the conflict. Right after a short break.

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[08:35:48]

SCIUTTO: Lebanon's health ministry says Israeli air strikes have displaced up to half a million people inside Lebanon. This follows the recent violence, including those massive blasts that hit heavily populated areas of Beirut, including one that killed the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. CNN international reporter Nada Bashir joins us now from London.

Nada, it appears that many residents, quite understandably, particularly of Beirut, are in fear right now of these ongoing air strikes. What has it meant and where are they going? Do they have a place to flee to?

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well, for days now, we've seen these long queues of cars attempting to move out of southern Lebanon now in Beirut, many families are living in fear given the series of strikes that we saw yesterday and overnight targeting areas, as you mentioned, that are densely populated, crammed with residential buildings, tall apartment buildings, of course, filled with civilians, families, children.

And what we've seen overnight, and what our teams on the ground have been seeing is that many have taken to the streets with whatever belongings they could grab with them blankets and pillows with their children essentially sleeping on the street in western parts of Beirut near the coastline, in an attempt to find whatever safety and security they can find too afraid to be indoors in buildings that could be struck by Israeli airstrikes.

Now, of course, we have seen this enormous bombing campaign. As you mentioned earlier in the show, we have seen huge weapons being used, huge bombs being used in what is a very densely populated area. For anyone who has been to the southern suburbs of Dahi, it is absolutely cramped. So you can imagine the consequences there for the civilian population.

We have heard from Lebanon's Health Minister telling CNN that they estimate around half a million people have now been internally displaced. And a reminder, of course, of what we've been seeing for a year now is this crossfire on Lebanon, southern border between Israel and Hezbollah, and that has already had already led to the number of civilians fleeing parts of southern Lebanon, around 100,000 forced to flee their homes there now. So as you can imagine, that number has only increased significantly given the strikes that we have been seeing.

What is also a huge point of concern and these evacuation orders that we're hearing now from the Israeli military, we're hearing from people on the ground telling us that they are receiving these evacuation orders, but that there isn't enough time to get to safety before the bomb strike.

So of course, there is rampant fear on the potential for escalation, and we've been hearing from Lebanese officials calling on the international community to intervene to prevent this from spiraling out of control.

SCIUTTO: Yes. And of course, there was no warning for the strike on Nasrallah for civilians that might have been present there. Nada Bashir, thanks so much. Our breaking news coverage continues right after a short break.

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[08:43:22]

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: The news now confirmed by Hezbollah that its leader Hassan Nasrallah has been killed. It is a significant development in this ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Let's go now to CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman in Beirut. Ben, now that we know that Nasrallah is dead. What happens next? Who might succeed him?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Before I get to that, Danny, let me just explain. The reason I'm wearing body armor at the moment is that within the last hour or so, there's been some intense machine gun fire in this area. Clearly, Hezbollah militants unhappy with the news that Hassan Nasrallah has been killed, and they're shooting in the air, and what goes up must come down.

Regarding the possible successor for Hassan Nasrallah, it looks as if the entire military leadership, going down several levels in the hierarchy have been killed by Israel over the last 10 days or so. So, we're looking at the political echelon of the organization. The deputy of Hassan Nasrallah was Naim Qassem, who is a cleric, somebody I just saw the other day. He was given a eulogy for a assassinated Hezbollah military commander Ibrahim Aqil.

He's considered to be a hard liner, and not lacking -- I'm sort of lacking some of the charisma and the managerial skills of Hassan Nasrallah. Another possible candidate is Hashem Safi Al-Din.

[08:45:00]

He is related through his wife to Hassan Nasrallah, another prominent member, but at this point, given the body blows that Hezbollah has received going back to July 30, when Fuad Shukr was killed in the southern suburbs of Beirut in an Israeli drone strike. What we're seeing is that the organization is clearly reeling at the moment, and perhaps their priority at the moment is surviving those who are still alive, surviving to carry on to fight another day, rather than rush off to decide who's going to run the place and then announce that to the public. Danny.

WALKER: What an extraordinary position Hezbollah is finding itself in right now. Ben, as we have seen, Israel, is capable of pulling off some very highly sophisticated attacks, as we saw with the pager and walkie talkie attacks, something that only a few nations could do. In terms of this attack killing Hassan Nasrallah, do we know what kind of intelligence the IDF used?

WEDEMAN: Well, we don't. We can only surmise at this point, but clearly they had somehow been able to infiltrate some of the communications networks of Hezbollah, all of these targeted strikes we've seen going back to last week clearly indicate that somebody was providing precise locations for precise individuals, allowing that building where he was in, or this person, or that person might have been in, and killing them.

So there's that angle, but there's also the human element. And in fact, several months ago, I met with a senior adviser to Nasrallah, who told me that one of their worries was that the many Syrians who work in southern Beirut, menial tasks, doormen working in shops, are probably their weak point, that these are people who might be passing information to the Israelis, perhaps for money.

And also keep in mind that many Syrians are deeply bitter at the role Hezbollah played during the Syrian Civil War, when Hezbollah deployed thousands of its fighters to Syria and many therefore, for instance, we're seeing that there are celebrations in rebel held areas of Syria when the news of Hassan Nasrallah death came out.

And there's another thing the same senior Hezbollah official told me that during that Syrian war, many of the Hezbollah fighters who normally would follow precise instructions on how they use their cell phones, for instance, they got a little sloppy while they were in Syria. They were communicating with their families back in Lebanon. They were sending pictures basically the Israelis they believe were able to start to identify individuals by using the data that they could collect from those phone calls, connecting these people. And therefore, you know, there's a variety of possible holes through which Israel could have gotten to allow them to be able to not just kill Hassan Nasrallah, but so many other senior Hezbollah military commanders. Amara.

FREEMAN: Ben, last thing, just before you go, can you give us a sense of what you believe Nasrallah's legacy in the region will be, as we continue on in this conflict?

WEDEMAN: Well, his legacy, or his standing or reputation in the region has gone through an interesting evolution. While he was leading in the 1990s the guerrilla war against Israel in South Lebanon, he was seen as a hero, one of the few Arab leaders who actually did something effective against Israeli occupation of Arab lands. In the 2006 war, he was celebrated across the Arab world because of Hezbollah's ability to essentially fight the Israelis to a standstill.

But then afterwards, he celebrated the killing, the execution in Iraq of Saddam Hussein, and that was seen as sectarianism, as a Shia leader was taking joy in the fact that Saddam Hussein, a Sunni leader, was being was killed. So a reputation that has taken a few knocks, and certainly in this war, many have seen him as somebody who hasn't done quite enough to help the people in Gaza as the Israeli war there goes on.

WALKER: All right. Ben Wedeman, we really appreciate your reporting there, live from Beirut as we follow this breaking news, an extraordinary moment as Hezbollah has confirmed that their leader, one of the founders of Hezbollah, has been killed in an Israeli airstrike. We'll be right back.

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[08:54:19]

FREEMAN: Helene is now a post tropical cyclone, but there's still widespread damage in the southeast in dangerous conditions as cleanup efforts get underway.

WALKER: There are at least 49 deaths, and crews are working to restore power to more than 3 million people at this hour. CNN correspondent Isabel Rosales is joining us now from Asheville, North Carolina. You've been showing us the damage. What are you seeing right now?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Amara, Danny, good morning to you. Yes, people are starting to dig out. I've seen an increase of cars just driving through this really thick mud that has been left behind from all of this river flooding also uncovering really strange things from furniture, to a door right here, and then right in front of you this huge power pole.

[08:55:03]

I mean, that's a big metal, heavy power pole, so that right there shows you the powers of this flooding from the Swannanoa River that crested at 27 feet. That is a new record, 27 feet, usually that river's two to four feet high, deep. I also want to show you something right here. Do you see this dark mark right here? That right there shows you the water light of how high the water got yesterday at his tallest point. That is two of me right here.

This building, by the way, this is a milk distribution warehouse. I spoke with the owner, Patrick, he says this caused an absolute mess. This water ruined all of his milk products, his heavy equipment. He's going to have to start again completely over. He doesn't even know where to begin with this recovery process. He doesn't have flood insurance. He told me a lot of other small business owners here and the historic Biltmore Village are in the same boat. This is going to be a long process of recovery for them to get this together.

I believe we have some drone footage as well to show from the sky what this aftermath looks like. It's not just cleaning up this mud, it's also reestablishing back to normalcy. There is no power here in the city of Asheville, and there's no ETA as to when that will come back. Also no carrier cell services working.

So we've seen people struggling to get in touch with loved ones outside of Asheville and to tell them that they are OK. There were over 130 swift water rescues that happened overnight, and officials are saying, Hey, we're not out of this yet. This is still dangerous conditions out and about, especially with debris. The two major rivers here are still at a major flood stage. They're telling people to avoid the roads as they begin this cleanup process. Danny, Amara.

FREEMAN: Isabel Rosales, just incredible images out there, hoping for a quick cleanup. Thank you.

WALKER: All right. Well, thank you for being with us on this very busy morning of breaking news. We'll see you back here tomorrow.

FREEMAN: Smerconish will start after a quick break.

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