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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Three Of Iran's Most Powerful Men Killed In Israel Strike; IDF Says Its Intercepting Iran's Drone Headed Towards Israel; Air India Plane Crash Investigators Find First Black Box; L.A. Mayor Says Downtown Los Angeles Curfew Will Continue; Senator Padilla Was Removed From DHS Presser And Briefly Handcuffed. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired June 13, 2025 - 04:30   ET

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

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[04:30:56]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And welcome back to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world, I'm Polo Sandoval in New In a devastating blow to Iran's leadership, three of the country's most powerful men have been killed in Israel's unprecedented attacks. The head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's highest ranking military officer, and a close aide to Iran's supreme leader, all confirmed killed in this overnight attacks.

Experts say that their deaths could seriously hamper Iran's ability to respond to Israel's stunning assault, which Benjamin Netanyahu says is far from over. As his country works to roll back what he calls the Iran threat to Israel's very survival.

And despite airstrikes hitting apartment buildings and skyscrapers in Tehran, the Israeli prime minister says that Israel is working to help the people of Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Our actions against Iran's proxy Hezbollah led to the establishment of a new government in Lebanon and the collapse of Assad's murderous regime in Syria. The peoples of those two countries now have a chance for a different future, a better future. So too do the brave people of Iran.

And I have a message for them. Our fight is not with you. Our fight is with the brutal dictatorship that has oppressed you for 46 years. I believe that the day of your liberation is near.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: But still, though those tensions remain extremely high in the region, in fact, analysts warning that Israel attacks will likely trigger a massive retaliation from Iran, which could tip the region into a full scale war. CNN's Fred Pleitgen has more on the situation inside Iran. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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

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

However, the chief of Iran's General Staff of the military, Mohammad Bagheri, was also killed in the strikes. The Iranians are now acknowledging, however, one of the things that we've seen in the past with the Iranians is that especially the Revolutionary Guard Corps certainly has a propensity and the capability to replenish their ranks in a very short period of time and continue their operations. And that is certainly something that the Iranians are vowing.

Now, we've been speaking in the past couple of days to senior Iranian officials and they've been telling us that Iran has already worked up a list of targets inside Israel that they would hit in case of a strike, like the ones that we've been seeing by the Israelis over the past couple of hours.

The Iranians telling us that on their target list there is also what they call clandestine nuclear facilities of the Israelis. The weapons of choice for the Iranians in the past, of course, have been their powerful ballistic missiles, of which the country has a lot of, and then also drones, which the Iranians have been using and also have been making better over the past couple of years.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: H.A. Hellyer is a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security. He joins us from Cairo, Egypt with analysis.

[04:35:00]

It's great to see you again, H.A., on what's been a very busy morning thus far. Let's dive straight in. I wonder if you could just put into perspective that's not only the scale but also the objective of these strikes. H.A. HELLYER, SENIOR ASSOCIATE FELLOW, THE ROYAL UNITED SERVICES

INSTITUTE FOR DEFENSE AND SECURITY: So they're very, I have to say, they're somewhat unrelated in the sense that the scale of the strikes are meant to be big. They're meant to be as noticeable as possible. There's nothing clandestine that's going on here.

On the contrary, as you mentioned this morning, as your report mentioned this morning, Netanyahu has made it very clear that he's going after several types of targets over several days if necessary. And I think that's telling that the idea is to make this as big a noise as possible. And it's hard to ignore the expectation from many within the region that this is really about a political move. This is really about ensuring that the United States and Iran do not continue with any sort of successful deal that attention is diverted away from, including his own domestic political woes. So I think that the aim in that regard has to be kept in mind.

When it comes to the scale, of course, this will have struck quite a bit of a blow to different parts of the security apparatus, including the nuclear energy program, or rather excluding in the sense that it's not part of the security apparatus in the same way within Iran. And the Iranians, of course, are going to respond. They've already started responding this morning. I fully expect that they will continue to do so.

So it sends everything into a bit of a spiral, which is why you've seen so many around the world come out in quite grave condemnation. And it's not out of some sort of newfound fandom or love for the Iranian regime.

On the contrary, I think that there's a full realization that the Iranian regime is quite a dangerous one and has been a bad act in the region on many different issues. But if you take this sort of step, then all you do is invite more destabilization in the region. You invite war. You set into motion a set of events that you cannot control, you will not be able to control.

But as has been stated many times, including on CNN, Netanyahu is looking to forge some kind of quote unquote, new Middle East. And it's one in which there is a certain type of hegemony in place. And of course, it will not belong to the region. It will belong to Israel and its allies. I think we have to be very careful about the moment that we're going into right now, very dangerous.

SANDOVAL: Yes. And clearly, as you lay out, the prime minister has his very clear objective here. And keeping that in mind, do you think that there's any way to deescalate this conflict or is it bound to really just spiral out of control?

HELLYER: So there is a way, but here's the issue. There's been a way multiple times, not simply when it comes to this sort of issue between Iran and Israel over the past two years, over frankly many more years beyond that, but it requires quite decisive action from the United States.

The United States is the most powerful actor in the region, especially when it comes to the Israelis. You know, we haven't mentioned the war on Gaza yet. I'm sure that this will come up through the course of the day because they are connected. And the reality here is that if the United States made it abundantly clear to Tel Aviv that if you pursue certain actions, that we simply will not support you and we will withdraw some of our support.

There's no way that the Israelis would have embarked on this set of events this morning had they not felt that they could count on the United States, despite the fact that, by the way, I want to make very clear here, the United States has been trying very hard to distance itself from these attacks this morning.

And I think that's genuine. I don't think that's fake. I think that they were not happy about it in the slightest. But does that translate into actual consequences for Israel following such an act? If the United States shows that there would be consequences in terms of the American relationship, then yes, deescalation I think would happen absolutely immediately.

SANDOVAL: It is certainly telling that the U.S. was able to orchestrate their response quite quickly while everything else was playing out in the Middle East. H.A. Hellyer, thank you so much for your analysis as always.

HELLYER: Thank you.

[04:40:00]

SANDOVAL: A look now at how some of these airstrikes are affecting oil and the markets as well. As you hear -- clearly see here, oil prices, those seem to be soaring some was it roughly 6, a little bit over then 6 percent in some cases with these fears of a potential wider war in the Middle East.

And then you look at some of the European stocks as well and where they're standing, quite the opposite here. Clearly losing some ground after this round of airstrikes. And then as far as U.S. Futures, you see them falling in some cases there as many as 500 points after Israel targeted Iran.

The U.S. again insisting that it had no active role in these airstrikes. But that doesn't mean that the U.S. markets will not be affected, as you clearly see here. We'll certainly see what happens after the opening bell.

Ahead, much more, CNN's breaking news coverage of Israel's attacks on Iran's nuclear sites and military leadership. Israel says that Iran has launched drones in retaliation. Want to have the very latest for you after a short break.

Also, the search for black boxes from that air disaster India that continues a full report on the way.

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[04:45:55] SANDOVAL: Israel says that it's shooting down Iranian drones that are headed toward its territory at this hour. The Israeli military says that Iran launched more than 100 drones in response to strikes by Israel on targets across Iran. Israel says that it hit Iran's nuclear facilities along with key military leaders and scientists using about 200 fighters, 200 jet fighters, I should say, that are in operation.

Iran's state media says that the attacks killed three of the most powerful people in their country and this includes the military's chief of staff and the commander of the Revolutionary Guard. Israel made it clear that its strikes are far from over.

Experts have long warned that an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear capabilities could drag the entire region into a full scale war and also trigger tremendous retaliation from Iran.

CNN security analyst Beth Sanner explains why Iran's response could be like nothing we've ever seen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETH SANNER, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: I think that there's one way of putting where we are right now. I mean Israel is at war with Iran. This isn't a strike. This isn't a strike in a retaliation and a tit for tat. This is full up war. And so when Israel says it's going to keep going, this is where we are. And they started at the top and they started very, very seriously, removing the chief of the General Staff.

In other words, like our chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff attacking basically what would be our, you know, senior military command. You can imagine what Americans would do. The question is whether Israel's ability to respond has been affected by Israel trying to decapitate their senior military leadership.

But we should expect, and that's what Israel is expecting, a massive, much bigger retaliation than what they saw last time because Iran now is under existential threat and we should expect a response along those lines.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And meanwhile crews in western India they are sifting through the rubble of air India Flight 171 as the world waits to learn the cause of that horrific crash. Just moments ago we just got word that one flight recorder has been recovered. And this one, this is one of the so called black boxes.

The Indian Prime Minister visited the wreckage earlier today and called the scene an unimaginable tragedy. Narendra Modi was born in the Gujarat region where the passenger plane went down on Thursday. We're told the overall death toll has reached at least 290 people and there are fears that will continue to go up.

The London bound jet was carrying Indian, British and Canadian as well as Portuguese nationals. Dozens of people on the ground also died when the plane hit a hostile a hostel that was housing doctors and medical students in the region. CNN's Katie Polglase has a closer look at the tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATIE POLGLASE, CNN INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER (voice-over): These are the final moments of air India Flight 171, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner with more than 200 people on board. Struggling to stay in the air, it crashes in a huge fireball.

A CNN analysis geolocating multiple social media videos and examining flight tracking data shows how the deadly crash unfolded. The plane took off at 1:38 p.m. local time from Ahmedabad airport in Western India. CNN synced together flight tracking data with this video from a security camera. The Dreamliner is heading to London Gatwick airport. It reaches 625 feet in the air but then the tracking stops less than a minute after takeoff.

You can see in the CCTV it starts descending plummeting at a speed of 475 feet per minute before it hits the ground. But there was enough time for a mayday call, according to India's civil aviation director.

Geolocated videos show the plane crash just outside the airport. This video of the plane's fall was filmed about 650 feet beyond the airport perimeter. On the ground at part of the crash site you can see the plane's tail lodged in the roof of a building.

[04:50:03]

That building is here, housing a food hall. And just half a mile from the airport, the fuselage and main crash site just 465 feet away from the tail, where a massive fireball can be seen in a populated neighborhood. Officials say people on the ground are among the dead.

Closer footage shows the horrific aftermath as recovery teams combed through the charred wreckage. But incredibly, at least one passenger survived and was taken to the hospital. He heard a loud bang about 30 seconds after takeoff.

He was in seat 11A, which according to online seat maps, is right next to the emergency exit. This is the first crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. And while the cause is still unknown, this latest disaster puts more pressure on Boeing following a string of failures in recent years.

POLGLASE: So according to the plane's tail number, it started flying in 2013, just two years after Boeing started manufacturing these 787 Dreamliners. Now, investigators will be looking into the maintenance records and pilot training in their search for answers. Katie Polglase, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Into the U.S. now, where parts of downtown Los Angeles are currently under curfew for the third night in a row amid protests against immigration raids. And this is a legal battle brewing over the Trump administration's use of the National Guard. Police detained multiple people on Thursday, but protests were mostly peaceful. Mayor Karen Bass says that the curfew will continue for a few more

days in the hope that, quote, people will get the message that they are serious.

An appeals court has paused a ruling that required President Donald Trump to return control of California's National Guard to the state. Earlier, federal judge ruled that Mr. Trump unlawfully mobilized thousands of members of the National Guard to deal with the L.A. protests. And it comes after California Governor Gavin Newsom sued the Trump administration for calling out the troops.

Mr. Trump said that Newsom should be thanking him, adding that L.A. would be burning to the ground, he says, if it didn't bring in the National Guard. A hearing with the appeals court has been scheduled for Tuesday.

And U.S. Democratic Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a press conference in Los Angeles after trying to ask the Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, a question about the federal response to protests. Law enforcement forcing Padilla out of the room and eventually having to handcuff him, his hands behind his back as they held him on the ground.

Noem said that the U.S. Secret Service, quote, thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately. CNN's Stephanie Elam with more on the incident.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are a couple of points that I want to make about what happened during this Secretary Noem press conference. For one thing, she was already talking. She had already begun her press conference when the senator walked into the room. And he did not burst into the room. He just walked into the room, and he stayed about a good 12 to 15 feet away from her.

He did interrupt her, and he started to talk, asking a question of the secretary. And almost immediately, some of the detail that was with the secretary began to grab him and push him out of the room. He continued to ask his question, but it was during this time, while they were removing him from the room, that he identified himself as U.S. Senator Alex Padilla.

It wasn't right when he started talking and he did interrupt her in the very beginning. He was removed from the room. He says he was handcuffed, was not arrested. Later on, both the secretary and the senator said that they met and they spoke briefly just to clear the air.

The secretary saying that they swapped phone numbers and said that they would communicate with each other going forward. But I want you to hear both of them, in their own words, talk about what happened. Take a listen.

SEN. ALEX PADILLA (D-CA): If this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they're doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country.

KRISTI NOEM, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: His statement is absolutely ridiculous. This man burst into a room, started advancing towards the podium, interrupting an opening statement, elevating his voice, shouting questions. People tried to stop him from interrupting the press conference. He refused and continued to lunge towards the podium. And that is when he was removed from the room.

ELAM: It was noteworthy as well that Secretary Noem didn't really miss a beat. She stopped talking for just a few moments and then continued on with her press conference. And one of the things that she had to say was that the federal government was here to liberate the city. That's how she put it. That they were not going to back down and they were not going to leave.

[04:55:00]

I did ask her which parts of L.A. she had visited during this trip and she said that she was staying near downtown. She saw the graffiti and some of the destruction that has happened down there in the protest area and she said that don't people want to have a nice downtown in their city?

But it seems that she did not get far outside of that. By the way she was talking about it. Although we are in western L.A. over here for this press conference today, it's important to remind people that the protests that we're seeing in the city are pretty much contained to downtown, especially the violent protests that we've seen. Most of that has been happening in downtown Los Angeles and the rest of the city is really business as usual. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: I'll take you back to the Middle East now and use. It's just into CNN. Iran's main nuclear enrichment facility, known as Natanz was damaged in Israel's attack on Friday. And this is according to the Iran Atomic Energy Agency. It's described as a heavily fortified facility. You'll find it about 150 miles south of the capital of Tehran.

It also houses thousands of centrifuges and used to enrich uranium for nuclear energy. The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog saying that Iranian authorities have confirmed that facility was impacted, but there were no elevated radiation levels.

I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. I'm going to be back with you with more breaking news coverage out of the Middle East right after this break.

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