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Erin Burnett Outfront
Top General: U.S. Will Start Striking "Deeper" Into Iran; 10 Nations Drawing Up Evacuation Plans Amid Widening War; U.S. Submarine Torpedoes Iranian Warship, Dozens Rescued. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired March 04, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:30]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Good evening and welcome to this special edition of OUTFRONT, "The War with Iran", live from the Middle East.
And tonight, we are in Tel Aviv and we've got the breaking news. The war is expanding and intensifying this hour, a U.S. official says that the U.S. will start, quote, "striking progressively deeper into Iran." As I said, that's the direct quote of where we are tonight in this intensifying war.
I'm about to speak to an Iranian American journalist, a former CNN correspondent, in fact, who is courageously reporting from inside Iran tonight from a devastated Tehran. And he's going to tell you firsthand what he's actually seeing on the ground there, a rare and powerful and painful eyewitness.
This as the war is escalating tonight, as I speak, 10 countries across northern Europe, northern Europe, you heard me right, are preparing a plan right now to evacuate civilians across borders amid this war with Iran that is now spreading thousands of miles from where it began, in Khamenei's compound in the center of Tehran Saturday morning.
The United States today putting out a video of a torpedo exploding an Iranian destroyer in international waters, far, far from the theater of war, all the way off the coast of Sri Lanka, thousands of miles from where this war is being fought.
We'll show you the images. They put them out. Pentagon video they put it out of the attack. And then you see the sudden, massive explosion. It's the first time an attack submarine has used a torpedo to sink a combat ship since World War Two.
Now, Sri Lanka's navy then was involved with trying to rescue. They said they've rescued more than two dozen people from the ship but that would mean that maybe up to 150 or more are dead. We don't know the complete toll.
Also today, NATO air defense systems shot down an Iranian missile that was going over Turkey. Turkey, of course, is NATO. It was traveling towards Turkey's airspace. We can see the debris from the missile there. And this is what we understand. We believe to be the first time that NATO forces have intercepted an Iranian missile traveling towards a member country's airspace in this war since this conflict began. And again, that was approaching over Turkish airspace.
And just to put this in context and show you this situation, with this widening theater of this war growing tonight, it is no longer confined to the Middle East, here, to the Gulf, to Israel, I'm standing to Iran. It's now spending roughly 4,000 miles across the globe. And there is concern, obviously, there is concern tonight that the United States misjudged the situation and that perhaps is having bigger problems defending against Iran than they had anticipated, although they are talking about massively depleting Iran's ability to fire missiles and to destroy launch pad sites.
Trump administration officials, though, have come out today and said something important. They said that they are facing a major challenge in intercepting Iran's lower technology attack forces, specifically the Shahed attack drones, which have worked to such deadly efficiency in Ukraine, some 57,000 of them according to a source inside that meeting, the Trump administration does not believe it will be able to intercept all those drones. And some of those are what's responsible for striking the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia. The Dubai consulate, many other sites.
According to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, though, this conflict is only getting started.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: As President Trump said, more and larger waves are coming. We are just getting started. We are accelerating, not decelerating.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: As to why Trump bombed Iran to begin with, obviously, this has been a shifting narrative. So, I want to play you what the White House said today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president had a feeling, again, based on fact, that Iran was going to strike the United States, was going to strike our assets in the region. And he made a determination to launch Operation Epic Fury based on all of those reasons.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So they're now saying that it was based on a feeling that Trump had that is, leaving some Trump aides to agonize privately over the fallout from what could be a potentially long war with no defined outcome.
We have all angles of this story covered tonight around the region and around the world. As we begin our coverage, I want to start with Jeremy Diamond. He's here with me in Tel Aviv.
And, Jeremy, you know, as we watch this, you know, when you sit here yes, missiles are coming in.
[19:05:05]
Yes, there are sirens fewer than before perhaps because of some of those interceptors being destroyed, perhaps strategically, but a war that we learn is intensifying.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely and we've been told that the Israeli military tonight has been striking at Iran's ballistic missile capabilities. It has been one of the focuses of this Israeli military operation so far in its first few days, reducing Iran's capacity to fire those ballistic missiles. And in fact, we got numbers not from the Israelis but from the Pentagon earlier today indicating just how effective that strategy has been so far, an 86 percent reduction in Iran's ability to fire those ballistic missiles since the first day of this war five days ago.
And in fact, the Israeli military is not only striking at those ballistic missile batteries and launchers, but also doing so sometimes as the Iranians are preparing to get those missiles onto the launch pad and preparing to fire them towards Israel. And so, what that means here is not only have we seen fewer missile launches fewer barrages, the barrages are also getting smaller in number.
Today, we saw some launches that were not even barrages. They were one missile being fired by Iran. And also, what that means is that fewer of those missiles are there for getting through Israel's air defenses. We haven't seen serious casualties in a couple of days now here in Israel, as a result of any of those launches.
BURNETT: Yes, yes.
All right. Jeremy Diamond, thank you very much here in Tel Aviv.
Let's go to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where, of course, there was that strike on the embassy.
Nic, where you are, I understand three cruise missiles were just intercepted. So, what are you learning there? And how does that play out in terms of what you see the warning you get what you hear on the ground.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah. There's three cruise missiles were intercepted just south of the capital Riyadh, very close to the Prince Sultan Air Base an important airbase, an airbase the United States has used in past with Saudi Arabia. There were two intercepts of cruise missiles there earlier in the day. So, it's very clear that that base just outside the capital is a target there were nine intercepts of drones earlier on in the day. There was an intercept of a missile that was being fired at one of the energy facilities, oil facilities in the east of the country.
And we learned something new from Pete Hegseth press conference today. Secretary of defense saying that the ballistic missiles have been targeting Saudis energy sector in the east of the country much closer to Iran, much closer to the Gulf, and this is the first time we've heard that ballistic missiles have been targeting Saudi Arabia's oil facilities. That is the biggest concern here. Saudi officials consider themselves the sort of apex of the ladder of escalation of Iranian attacks.
The drone attacks sort of low down on the escalation. The cruise missiles that we just heard about not far from the capital here, next, next up on that sort of ladder.
But at the top of the ladder is ballistic missile -- ballistic missiles targeting oil facilities they were intercepted. That was good. But if they get through potentially that would just drive Saudi Arabia to a position where the language that it's used so far, it has an option to respond to the aggression it draws it closer to that point. They don't want to get involved, but this is what's happening. And we learned that today from Pete Hegseth's press conference. So that --
BURNETT: Yeah
All right. We just obviously lost nicks transmission there. But he's in Saudi. And you heard the bottom line there. Three cruise missiles just intercepted.
Jeremy Diamond is still here with me. Also joining me, Nazila Fathi and General Joseph Votel, former CENTCOM commander.
And, General, I want to begin with you on the news that we just have this breaking news about three cruise missiles intercepted in Saudi Arabia, perhaps bringing them closer to the brink of actually responding, where we have seen a firm defensive posture only from Saudi, from the United Arab Emirates.
Do you believe that that we are closer to this war expanding even more?
GEN. JOSEPH VOTEL, CENTCOM COMMANDER (RET.): Thanks, Erin. It's great to be with you. Yeah, I think that -- I think certainly, Iran's response of strategy here, I think, has been to broaden the conflict. We've seen them attacking targets in a variety of -- variety of countries on their periphery. And I think they're also interested in trying to extend the timeline here for their ability to respond.
I think going into this, we certainly had an appreciation for the considerable capabilities that -- that still remain in Iran and their ballistic missile capabilities and certainly in their drone capacity. So, yeah, I think we're -- we expected this. There's certainly been a lot done by the military to address this.
[19:10:03]
But, of course, this is -- this is continuing work for us and so I think we are going to continue to see Iran lashing out, you know, spasmodically here to try to get as many different places involved in this as possible.
BURNETT: Now part of the underpinning of all of this, Nazila, was the belief or the hope depending on who you spoke to in the U.S. or Israel, that this would spark regime change or an uprising that would result in that outcome. You've been talking to people inside Iran, family, friends, many people as a reporter, after all the years that you spent there reporting, you're noticing a big shift in public opinion. What is it?
NAZILA FATHI, FORMER NEW YORK TIMES CORRESPONDENT BASED IN TEHRAN FOR TEN YEARS: As hope that this strike is going to help Iranian people change the regime is giving way to a totally different one, an increasing number of people both the ones that I have spoken to and the ones who are writing in Iranian independent newspapers are expressing fear, fear that Iran is moving toward possibly a civil war, possibly a breakup. They are starting to make sense of places that have been attacked, like local police stations, which are responsible only for petty crimes and for neighborhood security they are starting to make sense of why western side of Iran was bombed.
Now, the Kurdish insurgents, who are probably coming toward Iran have raised the fear that there is going to be a civil war. And then images of carnage, some historical sites, Azadi monument in Tehran. There were pictures of the monument today surrounded in fire and smoke. These are all leading people to fear that the country is moving toward a very dangerous path.
And it is scary because this is a country of 92 million people. It has a big army. Iran's army is the largest in the region, about one million forces, the Revolutionary Guards, the army and the militia force altogether.
And you know, they are divided. They are divided along party lines, ethnic backgrounds, even religious backgrounds. So, there are serious fears that this strike is going to turn into a long, bloody civil war, and probably the partitioning of the country
BURNETT: Jeremy, do your Israeli sources share those views, and do they view that as a bad thing?
DIAMOND: Well, I think the Israelis are certainly committed to the idea of regime change in Iran. How exactly that gets done still remains unclear. We know that there's been some reports that the Israelis have been bombarding those Iranian border guard positions along the Iran-Iraq border, perhaps to help clear the way for these Kurdish forces to be able to come into Iran.
I think the main question is, you know how long do the Israelis have to actually get this done? Because we know that while Israel is capable and has the political willpower, certainly to continue bombarding Iran --
BURNETT: Yes.
DIAMOND: -- the majority of the strikes that are being done in this campaign so far are being done by the United States. Israel is relying heavily on American refueling capabilities as well, to be able to conduct these really long-range strikes. And so, Israeli sources I've talked to have said, look, we know that
there could come a morning where President Trump wakes up and says, I've had enough here. You know, regime change is not necessarily going to be achieved. Let's just call it a win at what we've accomplished so far.
So, I think that's a real reality as we kind of track whether these two sides, American and Israel, are aligned on the endgame here.
BURNETT: And so much of the strikes, I mean, they happen all hours of the day, I know, but, you know, we do see those air refuelers, as you know, over the hours of the night coming back in.
DIAMOND: They're the only planes flying these days above Israel.
BURNETT: Come in with those lights off.
General Votel, a source is telling us that the United States has been burning through long range precision guided missiles over the last several days, that there's obviously been an intense use of them. Trump administration officials are telling lawmakers behind closed doors also that those Shahed attack drones, right, of which 57,000 or so have been used in Ukraine. Low tech there. They evaded defenses. They're posing a bigger problem than anticipated here.
You know, how do you see that? I know that there are so many conversations about ramping up production, and whether it's an issue and whether it's not an issue, and how much missile defense actually exists. You know, more than almost anyone. What can you tell us?
VOTEL: Well, I think certainly we're always concerned about the logistics that are necessary to support our operations and, we've been doing a lot of work for a number of years now to improve our magazine depth. That is our ability to have a lot of munitions in storage that we can -- that we can call on and use for operations like this.
I think my assessment is, is that what we have seen in the first few days has been the use of a lot of standoff weapons.
[19:15:06]
I think the Pentagon tried to explain this today, that as we were -- as we were beginning to address targets, we used standoff weapons. And now we're beginning to move to what is referred to as stand in weapons, and that is weapons that are designed now that we've created a situation where we can establish air superiority over portions of Iran, that we can come in and use these standoff missiles that don't require this and which we have greater depth of this.
But of course, backing all this up is the defense industrial base and a whole variety of members of industry here who are continuing to you know, produce munitions we need and make sure that we -- that we -- that we have what our forces require on the ground.
So, certainly, a concern but I would imagine we have we have stockpiled what we need for this operation and for the phases that were entering in. There may be some ramifications for some of our other strategic readiness or response capabilities down the line.
BURNETT: Which obviously is something -- I know you said it last, but it is far from least important.
Nazila, sources are telling us that Iranian intelligence has sent messages to the CIA through a third country to perhaps open talks to end the war.
All right. So first we knew. We knew possibly through Oman, but now through Qatar. And we know that Qatar basically said, sorry, we're not accepting your apology for hitting that U.S. airbase. You also hit some of our -- our territory, and we don't buy that that was not at us, right? So, it doesn't seem to have gone far yet. But what does it tell you about the mentality of the people who are running Iran tonight? As unclear as that may be, there are people who are making some of the decisions. And if that outreach occurred, does that say something important, Nazila?
FATHI: Erin, I think it's a sign that Iran is not speaking in a unified voice. And there is no doubt that whoever is in power and it's probably more than the number that we have in our mind, a lot of senior generals have been killed, but there are some people who are still in power they are fighting for their survival.
So, I -- I think it makes total sense for people to reach out and try to reach a deal because they are in a mode right now that it just indicates they are saying if we're not safe, nobody's safe. If we're going down, we're going to take other countries in the region down with us.
So, I -- I think it makes total sense if there are some people inside the country who are trying to reach a deal.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you all very much. Grateful for all of your insight.
And our breaking news coverage continues as we understand that the war is intensifying and these overnight hours in the skies of Tehran, 2:00 in the morning here in Tel Aviv.
Iranian American reporter Reza Sayah is with us. An incredibly rare moment speaking to OUTFRONT, and he is going to speak to us from Tehran, reporting from the capital this hour. And he's going to tell you what he's seeing, and some of it is going to be hard to hear.
Also breaking, our team in Beirut reporting relentless airstrikes there, a loud explosion just moments ago, as I said relentless strikes as this war is now on a new front to the north, the Israeli military ordering some residents in Lebanon to evacuate. And then a 39-year-old mother, 39 years old, a mom just a couple of days away from going home to her family, to her children, to her nine-year-old daughter. She was killed in Kuwait by that drone strike.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:23:14] BURNETT: Welcome back to this special edition of OUTFRONT, "The War with Iran". We are here in the Middle East tonight in Tel Aviv. And I want to get to Reza Sayah.
He is a journalist. He is based in Tehran. He is special correspondent for "PBS NewsHour". He's also a former colleague, a former CNN correspondent.
Reza, I know you live in Tehran. This is home for you. And now the war has come to your home. It's incredibly rare for anyone to be able to get the story of what's happening there on the ground.
You know, today, Reza, we see these horrific images, one building, all that's left of it. It's just been completely destroyed after what appeared to be a strike the destruction everywhere. And I know that you're not getting siren warnings, that things can happen next door to someone, where maybe someone in the IRGC lived. And then you find out because it's hit.
Can you just explain what's happening on the ground right now?
REZA SAYAH, JOURNALIST BASED IN TEHRAN, FORMER CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'll explain it by saying that it's awful. It's awful, and I hate it, I hate it. I hate war, and I and I wish somehow this would end. And I have to think there has to be a way to make it end, because people are suffering, in the view of many, they're suffering unnecessarily.
I've seen some terrible things. Airstrikes every day. That familiar sound of a jet flying over and seconds later, you hear a large explosion and the plumes of smoke.
I live here. I have a seven-year-old daughter and the day where the initial strike happened that hit the supreme leader, she was with me. And I heard this earth shaking, boom.
[19:25:01]
And I knew what it was, and I put her in my car, and I raced to the northern part of the town. She's away from Tehran now. She's along the Caspian Sea with her mother where she's safe. But I miss her very much. I want to hold her, and she's safe.
But many other people are not. Innocent people -- and I can't tell you about the gruesome images that I've seen. Men, women and children, innocent civilians in their homes, in their cars, in their motorcycles, in these airstrikes come and they're ripped to shreds. And in so many instances where people are being pulled out of the rubble. Children -- saw that school that was hit and that these people have nothing to do with this conflict.
And my heart breaks for them and my heart as an American, I'm an Iranian American. It breaks for Americans, too, because they don't deserve to be viewed as someone who supports what many believe is a war machine.
So I'm speaking from the heart, and I appreciate you listening to me, but there has to be a way to make this end. As journalists, we have to hold these people accountable. And we can't let these individuals start a war without them clarifying why. Why is it necessary?
BURNETT: So, Reza, when you talk to people there, and as this is continuing, how do they view the United States? I mean, I guess I'm asking you this. Can you separate it from how they view Israel? But right now, how do they view the United States?
SAYAH: Well, you know, first of all, there's 90 million Iranians with 90 million voices. And one of the things that's sometimes amusing being a correspondent is someone comes to me and says, what do people -- what are people thinking? And I don't know what 90 people are thinking.
What I can tell you is, you know some people don't like this government. They don't mind that the supreme leader is gone. And they celebrated his death.
But there's millions of Iranians who are mourning his death. They loved him. He was their spiritual leader.
And I think most people, millions of others, are just terrified. They feel helpless. And they want this to end.
And I think, in general, Iranians adore Americans. They're -- there are -- a lot of them are Americanized themselves. They can relate to the culture. It's the government they have an issue with.
BURNETT: Yes.
SAYAH: It's the government.
BURNETT: So, Reza, when you -- you know, there's so much discussion now trying to understand has there been a new supreme leader elected? What is the status of that? Who's in charge in Iran?
You know, we hear about from things that the foreign minister Araghchi has said, which have made it clear that military units some of them are operating on pre-agreed plans, but basically in isolation, and that they're pursuing those plans.
And there's a real question about who's running the country. Sitting where you're sitting right now --
SAYAH: Yes.
BURNETT: -- in Tehran, do you know who's running the country?
SAYAH: Well, all you can go by is what the power structure is, is telling you. I think politically, it's the interim leadership council that's running the country and then you have the military structure, and they've made it clear that there is no central command at this point. And that's done intentionally.
Their strategy is something that's called decentralized mosaic strategy which is an approach where you have, in each province -- forces in each province granted autonomy and independence. So, if one of them is neutralized, the other ones keep going. In other words, there is no head of the snake to cut off.
And that's how they're explaining that they're managing to launch all these missiles and drones at U.S. assets and U.S. bases in the region. So that's what they're saying. That's how they're leading --
BURNETT: So the united --
SAYAH: -- the battle in the theater of war, the leadership.
BURNETT: Yeah. So, you know, we're just showing images that we do out of -- out of Tehran, dayside images taken during the day of some of the smoke. I think it's indelibly marked now. And anyone listening mental, mental picture, when you talk about someone on a motorcycle being ripped to shreds.
SAYAH: Yes.
BURNETT: The United States is investigating a strike on a girls school. And according to Iranian state media, it's killed more than 100. I haven't seen that disputed.
[19:30:02]
It was a horrific event. It was talked about today at a press conference by the U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. And here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: All I know, all I can say is that we're investigating that. We, of course, never target civilian targets. But we're taking a look and investigating that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: What do you know, Reza, about what happened there?
SAYAH: I don't know much other than the first day of these airstrikes. This school with more than 150 schoolgirls, aged 7 to 12, was the target of an airstrike and obliterated the school. And apart from that, we don't know if this was intentional. There's reports that this school was in a sprawling military base, and that's often the case in parts of Iran, their sprawling military bases where people live there, they go to school there, there are supermarkets.
Is that what happened? Did they locate this place as a military base, and they accidentally hit the school? I don't know. But the bottom line is, you know, more than 160 schoolgirls many of them, going to school, pictured with the hijabs, chadors, and they were -- they're just gone.
And the scenes of the funeral were just terrible, gut-wrenching scenes. And it's very likely based on my experience as a journalist when these attacks happened and governments say they're going to investigate it, unfortunately, usually, no one is held accountable.
BURNETT: Reza, thank you very much. We appreciate your time. Please -- I know it sounds trite to say, but please stay safe and thank goodness for your wife and daughter that they are. Thanks
SAYAH: Thank you.
BURNETT: All right. We're back here in Tel Aviv and had just taped that interview prior to the show, just in the past couple of minutes. I'm here with his foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu here in Tel Aviv.
We're talking to you from a stairwell, and we're doing that because there were sirens and we've just heard several large explosions in terms of what appear to be interceptions. But quite a few loud ones. And just to be clear, so everyone understands, it's 2:30 in the morning here.
OPHIR FALK, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER TO PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU: Right. So first of all, thanks for having me here. And second, this is a live example of the difference between us and them. They target our civilians. They're targeting us right now, the civilians.
And we target the terrorists. That's the difference between Israel and the ayatollah regime in Iran. And that's exactly why we have to remove the existential threat posed by this ayatollah regime. And that's exactly what we're going to do.
BURNETT: Okay. So, just -- you know, when we one of the things that that happens here, right, is sirens. And we don't always get them. Sometimes when they're missiles or rockets coming from the north, we don't always get a warning. Usually when they're coming from Iran, you do when you're here.
But they don't get that there. Obviously, so much that's been destroyed by the -- by the U.S. and Israel last summer and also now.
And that is when you when you think about some of the civilians there and, you know, we were just hearing about some of the fear that they have, what is your goal?
FALK: Again, our goal is to remove the existential threat posed by the ayatollah regime in Iran. They've been chanting death to America and death to Israel for 47 years. They've been murdering Americans, Israelis thousands and their own people as well. Just recently, President Trump said that they murdered close to 30,000 people in three days.
BURNETT: Earlier this year.
FALK: Right. So, these guys, they got to go. They got to go. And that's what we're going to do right now. That's what we're doing right now.
We're hitting them hard. They're attacking our civilians, as you can see right now. And we're attacking the ayatollah regime, and we're going to take them down.
BURNETT: Let me just ask when it comes to the goals as you see them, okay? There's been discussion as to whether the U.S. and Israel have has the same goals. I know it's been very clear regime change is a focus for you.
What does that mean? What does regime change mean? And is there anything that you see in this delay of an announcement of who the new supreme leader is? Right? Because we thought last night, we might get an announcement, and it might be the second son of the Ayatollah Khamenei. We have not gotten that announcement yet.
FALK: Well, I don't think the Iranian people want to replace one ayatollah with another ayatollah. And what our objective is, as I said, is to remove the ayatollah regime.
That will open up the door for the Iranian people to take their destiny into their hands. It's going to be -- it is a once in a generation opportunity for the Iranian people to grasp the moment and to do the right thing and to -- for their future, to establish a new -- that's an interception.
[19:35:12]
Don't worry about it.
BURNETT: Yeah, no, but they're still going -- they're still related to what we heard. So now they've been going on for, I guess three or four minutes that that those we believe missiles obviously have been coming in.
So then how do you interpret right now? What's your view of how Iranians feel on the ground? Because obviously, they're under a relentless assault. Defense Secretary Hegseth in the U.S. has said it's just the beginning. General Caine has said that they're going to be penetrating even deeper. That's affecting Iranians across the country.
Are you worried that that could turn sentiment, even for those who are grateful to get rid of the Ayatollah Khamenei against this campaign?
FALK: Well, what we see and what we've heard for years is that the Iranian people want change. Eighty percent of the -- over 80 percent of the Iranian people want these thugs out. They want ayatollah regime out and they've asked for help, and help has arrived.
What we're doing now is epic. It's an epic tag team between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu, between American and Israeli armed forces. Never before has the world seen anything like it. And were hitting them very, very, very hard, and we're going to continue to hit.
BURNETT: And do you feel that 80 percent, 80 percent agree? I mean, with getting rid of the --
FALK: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. BURNETT: So then how much is left? We hear about the fact that you
knew where -- maybe it was the CIA, where that exact meeting was, but that the Mossad and the Israeli defense forces know where everyone lives, right? That were seeing targets in an IRGC apartment there or target in IRGC apartment there.
How many more people right now are on your list?
FALK: Well, whatever it takes. We're going to take out all the terrorists that pose a threat to the American people, to Israel, and to the free world. What we are doing now in the past five days is a huge, huge win for humanity. It's a huge win for humanity.
We're removing the existential threat posed by Iran, not only to Israel. They are building nukes. The most crazy death cult regime on earth. We're trying to acquire nuclear weapons. There's no bigger threat than that to humanity, and we're removing that threat. It's a huge win for humanity, and we're going to remove this regime.
BURNETT: I want to ask you one question about that horrific and heartbreaking situation with the schoolgirls in Iran.
Now, our understanding from is the United States has launched an investigation into whether it was a U.S. strike that was intended to be on a military facility. Reza, our former correspondent, was just explaining that in a lot of Iran military bases, there are schools, there are grocery stores, that it would not be unusual to have that sort of facility on a base. But I just want to be clear because it looks at the way when you look at the way that the U.S. and Israel have split the strikes that have been coordinated, but split the strikes, that that would have very clearly been and it looks it from what General Caine showed today on his map. That would have been an American strike, right?
FALK: From what I understand, it's clearly an Iranian strike. It's a misfire from the Iranians. That's what I understand.
BURNETT: Misfire from the Iranians, at their school?
FALK: Yes, absolutely. It's happened in Gaza a number of times. And I guess that's what's happened in Iran. But regardless, it's on the Iranian regime's hands.
For us, every civilian casualty is a tragedy. You got to understand that. We do everything to prevent civilian casualties. So, for us -- for Israel, and also for the United States, of course, we have the same moral values. Civilian casualties are a tragedy.
For them, it's a strategy. They target us. You see that right now. They're targeting us right now. They want to kill as many civilians as possible.
BURNETT: I just -- I just want to -- I just want to understand, though because you're saying something that we actually have not heard from the U.S. They've said they're investigating it. They haven't said -- they haven't tried to say that the Iranians
actually struck their own school on their own base because -- I mean, I'm just saying, I know -- I know that the way that Israel was working in the north and the west and the U.S. was working in the south, this was in the south. So, this would have been in the U.S. zone. I just am being clear. I don't know the outcome of the investigation but --
FALK: I can tell you 100 percent, 100 percent sure that the American military did not intentionally kill civilians. I can tell you that for 100 percent.
And from what I understand, those were Iranian missiles that misfired and there's like about 30 percent of those missiles are misfiring. So that's not something strange. We saw that a number of times in Gaza, often, which is in Hamas, they're like a proxy. For Iran, it's the same -- it's the same thing.
FALK: All right. Ophir, I appreciate your time. And thank you very much. Again, I know an unusual place to conduct an interview, but I think that in the interviews, both of which you've just seen, have given you a sense of where we are and where this war is here, from a stairwell, from a shelter in Tel Aviv, as there were just a bunch of -- we don't know how many -- but several cruise missiles were still hearing actually, right now be intercepted.
[19:40:05]
We'll be right back.
FALK: Thank you, Erin.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: And we are back with this special edition of OUTFRONT, "War with Iran". You know, we obviously just came from the shelter. And just to explain to you what happened while we were there, our cameras were out. There were obviously interceptions, and you heard some of the loud explosions, some of them is -- as our crew could see from the edge of our shelter coming right over and were intercepted pretty much just over where we're standing. And perhaps that's why it was so loud that I believe you could even hear over our boom mic there.
And so, now, we're back out, 2:30, 2:40 in the morning. That's what people would have gotten up and rushed for shelter. Obviously, that's important. Obviously, this is -- this is the war zone. And what it's like here.
Of course, as you just heard Reza say, in Tehran, they don't get those warnings and the horror of what that can mean for individuals is hard to contemplate. The Israeli military has just said moments ago, in addition, here on this new front of the war, over just the past, say 36 hours, that they have begun striking Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut, north of where we are. And there was just a loud explosion heard there by our team on the ground. The IDF has not yet provided more details on that, but all of this just going back and forth in the skies, that's why people can't leave, because there's no airports really able to be open in that zone for obvious reasons.
As air strikes have hit Beirut throughout the day, the Israeli military are telling people to evacuate in southern Lebanon because of the ground incursion, as they are expanding their operations against Hezbollah.
Matthew Chance is OUTFRONT. He is live in Beirut.
And, Matthew, you know, explosions here, interceptions here, cruise missiles here. You are also having explosions there and people, many of them not able to take shelter on the ground where you are.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. It was something that actually just struck me when you were conducting that interview, you know, after hearing air raid shelters air raid sirens. Sorry, you took cover. There were no air raid sirens that take place here, even though you know, every, you know several hours or even more frequently than that. There are big booms, there are airstrikes really rattling some of the Hezbollah controlled suburbs of the south of, of this city. And in fact, there have been a couple over the course of the past few hours with big plumes of black smoke. And this is south Beirut behind me. Big clouds of black smoke hanging over the skyline and the buildings there.
There's also been a lot of military activity, of course, taking place in the Hezbollah controlled areas of the south of the country, where there have been, of course, airstrikes, but also fierce fighting has been reporting there between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces, as Israeli troops move in to that area.
They've issued evacuation orders to the whole for towns and villages across the whole of South Lebanon as well. And that means tens of thousands of people are being forced to pick up their pack, up their lives and move out of the line of fire as quickly as possible. That's already started taking place. The reports of 18-hour long traffic jams between south Lebanon and the capital Beirut.
Already, refugee centers or displaced people centers have started to overflow. They've been springing up in schools people are sleeping on streets. They're sleeping on the beaches, on the sea front as well. And aid workers are very concerned, and the government is very concerned that that crisis is only going to get worse as the Israeli military action and the confrontation with Hezbollah continues, Erin.
BURNETT: Yeah. Matthew, thank you very much and the humanitarian crisis where you are across so much of Tehran, of course, perhaps is just at the beginning.
Fareed Zakaria is with me now, host of CNN's "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS".
And, Fareed, a lot to talk about. I want to start with something, though, that I began the program with, which was something that happened today in Europe, 10 countries across northern Europe are planning or preparing a plan, they say, evacuation plan to evacuate civilians across multiple borders amid the war with Iran, which of course in some senses people may say, whoa, did I just hear that? But of course, it has already spread many thousands of miles from where it began. When you even look at that torpedoing of Iran's navy destroyer this morning.
Do you think, Fareed, that this war will get much bigger?
FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": No, I actually don't. I think that what is happening here is that the war was very sudden and very different from most of the kind of military actions the United States has, has undertaken where usually there is a long process of preparation, there's an effort to consult with Congress, the United Nations allies. And in those months, countries are able to evacuate their civilians because, you know, that this is going to become a very dangerous place for people to be.
But I don't think that at the end of the day this widens much more because Iran doesn't have those many options. Remember, Iran is very weak. It was already extraordinarily weak when the war began because of the bombings last June. For 12 days, the United States and Israel hammered Iran in what President Trump at the time called one of the most successful air campaigns ever.
We use stealth bombers. We bombed Natanz and Fordow. These underground facilities bombed the air defenses so that they were virtually air defenseless.
[19:50:02]
All that had already happened. Now you have -- you've had another enormous, much larger air campaign. So, the Iranians are -- they have the ability to do what I would really describe as these pinprick strikes. You know drones, ballistic missiles here and there most of the air defenses remain very strong. The UAE is obviously -- Israel's, you know, maybe a few percent get through. These air defenses are 95 percent strong.
So where will the Iranians go? They've gone where they can. Now the problem is there is, you know, the fact that you are in generalized tension means there are places where, you know, people can't work and live as normal. But I don't see this flaring up. Iran is really in a very bad place.
BURNETT: Well, I think there's probably no one watching who isn't glad to hear what you're saying.
You know, we are talking about the airspace over Iran and whether it's completely under control of Israelis and Americans. And obviously, as you know, Fareed, today, there were a couple of different things said about that. The press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said we were hours away from that. The defense secretary had said it would take days or a week.
So, it's unclear exactly where that is. But they're close and when the defense secretary talked about that today, he also said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Death and destruction from the sky all day long. We're playing for keeps. Our warfighters have maximum authorities granted personally by the president and yours truly. Our rules of engagement are bold, precise and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it. This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Fareed, what do you make of his messaging?
ZAKARIA: Well, it's ideological. I mean he's appealing to a certain kind of MAGA base which thinks the military has been overly constrained, that rules of engagement were too tight.
It's frankly not true. The U.S. military has always had extraordinary ability to inflict enormous deadly force on the enemies. That was true in Iraq. It was true in Afghanistan.
The problem is, in those countries, there -- wasn't easy to know what to bomb because you were trying to go after terrorists who were hiding in caves and in small houses. Iran is a -- is a country with real targets. You know, it has a big military, it has a big navy. It has ports. So, it's -- so it's much easier to go after them.
But the idea that the United States was being shackled by these rules is completely untrue. And if, in fact, Secretary Hegseth has loosened them excessively, you will see the result in unnecessary civilian casualties. I don't think there's any great virtue or honor in the U.S. military killing civilians from the sky. And I hope that isn't going to be the consequence of what he described.
BURNETT: Okay. Fareed, thank you so much.
And we are continuing to follow our breaking news here in the Middle East as we are learning at this hour. More details about the six U.S. service members who died in Kuwait and their families, and what they've left behind.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:57:12]
BURNETT: Welcome back to a special edition of OUTFRONT.
Moments ago, you saw us broadcasting from a shelter, essentially a stairway, as huge explosions were happening pretty much overhead. Some of the loudest that we've heard actually over the past 24 hours. Red alert sirens activated across Israel and those interceptions right here as we are learning that President Trump is going to attend the dignified transfer of the six American service members who have been killed in that Iranian drone strike in Kuwait alongside the U.S. base.
It comes as we are learning new details about these soldiers, one of whom was just about to go home and be with her nine-year-old little daughter. Sunlen Serfaty is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A mother days from returning home, a man known to be the life of the party, a 20-year-old Eagle Scout and a father who shared a passion for taekwondo with his son. These are the faces of the first American troops to lose their lives in the line of duty in the war with Iran, all six killed in Kuwait.
Among them, Nicole Amor, 39 years old, was a mom to a fourth grader and high school senior in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. She was almost home. Her husband, who had spoken to her two hours before she died, said Amor was an automated logistics specialist who, just a week before her husband said had been moved off the base out of fear it was going to be attacked.
In a social media post, her husband said the world is dimmer without her light in it, but her love and the impact she made will live on in all of us.
Sergeant Declan Coady, from Des Moines, Iowa, was just 20 years old, posthumously promoted from information technology specialist to sergeant. He had been updating his family throughout this past weekend, telling them he was safe until a fateful moment at their door.
ANDREW COADY, DECLAN COADY'S FATHER: I will say most of us started to wonder and your gut starts to get a feeling, and we just turned the lights off and went into the bedroom and the doorbell rang at 8:00 p.m.
SERFATY (voice-over): Coady had recently told his father he'd been asked to consider extending his deployment nine more months. He was on track for a promotion and had set his sights on becoming a commissioned officer.
His sister saying she still doesn't feel his death is real.
KEIRA COADY, DECLAN COADY'S SISTER: I just remember all of her conversations about what he was going to do when he came back.
SERFATY (voice-over): Captain Cody Khork was 35 years old from Lakeland, Florida, who felt a calling to serve from an early age. He was deeply patriotic and took great pride in serving something greater than himself, his family said those who served with him remember his leadership and care for his team.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He cared about people. Hey, I'm not going to put soldiers in harm's way. That's what you look for in a commander.
SERFATY (voice-over): And Sergeant First Class Noah Tietjens was 42 years old, a devoted husband and father who stood out for his professionalism.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hate to say this, but I don't think I ever saw the guy smile, but that's a testament to just how professional he was
SERFATY (voice-over): And mentorship.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He always took the time, you know, he made you feel important.
SERFATY (voice-over): A black belt in taekwondo, his family were prominent members of a martial arts studio in their hometown of Bellevue, Nebraska.
Sunlen Serfaty, CNN, Washington.
(VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: And we're grateful for that very small chance to remember their lives.
"AC360" starts now.
