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Israel Launches "Broad-Scale Wave Of Strikes" In Tehran; Trump Taps Mullin To Replace Noem As Homeland Security Chief; New Report From CNN's Fred Pleitgen And Team In Tehran. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 06, 2026 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:50]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It is the top of the hour, 5:00 a.m. in New York. I'm Erica Hill.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: And it is 2:00 p.m. here in Abu Dhabi, live from our Middle East programing headquarters. I'm Becky Anderson, and let's get you right to the breaking news.

The Israeli military says it is carrying out a broad scale wave of strikes on Iranian regime infrastructure in Tehran.

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ANDERSON: That is just one of the many powerful explosions across the Iranian capital overnight and into today.

Take a look at this video, as an Iranian journalist was reporting live from Tehran.

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ANDERSON: Daylight reveals the scale of destruction across what is this sprawling city of nearly 10 million people. According to the Iranian red crescent society, more than 3000 homes have been damaged. A popular shopping district in one of the busiest streets in Tehran targeted.

Meanwhile, explosions are filling the skies in another front over Beirut, Lebanon. You see smoke there Israel says it is targeting a Hezbollah stronghold, issuing expansive evacuation orders in that area. Video from Bahrain shows an oil refinery hit by an Iranian missile. The country's interior ministry reports a hotel and two residential buildings in the capital were hit, but no one was killed.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says U.S. strikes on Iran will only get more intense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Iran is hoping that we cannot sustain this, which is a really bad miscalculation for the IRGC in Iran. You see there's no shortage of American will here. We've got no shortage of munitions. Our stockpiles of defensive and offensive weapons allow us to sustain this campaign as long as we need to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, state media reports Iran's leadership council is now preparing to introduce a new supreme leader. President Trump says he needs to be involved in that decision. He is also boasting about the U.S. and Israeli military campaign being far ahead of schedule.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're tough, and they want to fight and they're calling. They're saying, how do we make a deal? I said, you're being a little bit late and we want to fight now more than they do.

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ANDERSON: Well, we're covering this story from across the region this hour. Paula Hancocks standing by in Dubai.

First, I want to get to Oren Liebermann in Tel Aviv.

Let's just explore a little of what we've just heard. Pete Hegseth says there is no shortage of will or ammunition as they, in his words, throttle up. These attacks these coordinated attacks on Iran. President Trump in the past 24 hours has said he puts no time limit on the schedule for this war.

What do you make of what you are seeing and hearing, and what do we understand to be going on militarily over and on Iran at this point?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: The military side is much clearer right now than the political side. And that's where the U.S. and Israel have made clear that they are not even close to looking for an off ramp as they work their way down. An extensive list of targets into Iran and in Iran, trying not only to make sure the Iranian regime crumbles, but any chance of it picking a successor any chance of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps having the ability to run, to control, to affect security in the country that is, is part of the target list here. And that's what the U.S. and Israel are putting into effect.

Both have made clear that they're moving on to the next phase unexpanded phase of the conflict, as they establish air superiority over Iran and over Tehran. And that means the air forces of both countries can effectively do whatever they want.

On the military side, that much is clear. What they're looking to do politically, that remains much more ambiguous. President Donald Trump saying he wants to be part of the selection process for the leadership of Iran. He's certainly not getting an invite to the Iranian assembly of experts that announces the next supreme leader here. So how he intends to do that? That very much remains unclear on the Israeli side it's not any clearer.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is happy to see this war continue for weeks if not much more than that, has simply said that he has urged the Iranian people to overthrow the regime how that happens, what that looks like, what it leads to and when it happens, that is all unclear. For now, the leadership of the U.S. and Israel are more than happy to see the war and the strikes on Iran and on the capital of Tehran continue.

ANDERSON: And I do want to ask whether you have any further information about how long those might continue. We heard from the Pentagon, from Pete Hegseth on Wednesday, now 48 hours or so ago saying that they were throttling up and that they would have completed sort of phase two of their military objectives, the decimation of the ballistic missile. And one assumes drone program as well by the weekend.

What are you hearing?

LIEBERMANN: The closest we've gotten to any sort of timeline was Trump, when he gave an interview to a U.S. media outlet and said, four to five weeks, we haven't been waved off that by the Israelis, so that's kind of the scale of the timeline they're looking at.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth saying the offensive and defensive weapons stockpiles, are not -- not only did he not say they're not in danger, he basically said they have all the weapons they need. That bit is unbelievable weapons stockpiles offensive and defensive are always a consideration and a crucial one in times of war, especially when you're seeing activities of this intensity.

But from where we stand right now, weeks is could very well be the expectation. One of the questions we don't really have an insight into, because it's so dependent on what Trump feels at that particular moment, is how much longer does Trump want to keep this up? He could, as he did during the 12-Day war in June, simply decide that that he's had enough declare victory and move on. And for Israel, that would very much be an indication that the war is over.

But he seems happy for this to continue. So, for right now, it very much does. And that's not only in Iran, but also across the northern border of Israel, in Lebanon as well. Yeah.

ANDERSON: And I do just want to finally and briefly get an update from you on that other front. What's going on?

LIEBERMANN: Israel has issued evacuation warnings for hundreds of thousands of Lebanese in the south of the country, in the southern suburbs of Beirut and the Bekaa Valley. The Israeli military says they've carried out more than 500 strikes across Lebanon in just about every major population center. And just like Iran, it doesn't look like that's ending anytime soon. With the Israeli military calling up reservists at the beginning of the war. We'll see it looks like they could potentially be poised for either a larger ground invasion or wide scale bombardment of large parts of the country

ANDERSON: Good to have you. Thank you very much indeed. Oren Liebermann for you.

Well, here in the Gulf region and very specifically in the UAE, the minister of state and the ministry of foreign affairs said yesterday, thanking European partners for their condemnations following Iran's as she described it, unjustifiable unprovoked and unlawful attacks she also appreciated their strong expressions of solidarity and support.

We are seeing that European effort very visibly, both in Qatar and here in the UAE, the U.K. yesterday announcing that it would send further tornado jets to Qatar to support their self-defense as they continue to get attacked by missiles and drones from Iran.

And we are seeing a similar effort here on the part of the French and of the Italians in support of the self-defense of the UAE.

Let's cross to Paula Hancocks, who is live this hour in Dubai the evacuation of those who have been caught up in this, continues, Paula, what is the very latest on travel as we understand it here and across the region.

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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, starting off here, it has definitely picked up speed. This is an area Dubai specifically that the airspace was opened Monday evening for a very select few of the flights getting out. These are flights of people who have tickets already.

They've been canceled over the past seven days, so they are the ones that are being repatriated first. We had an updated figure from Dubai airport. This is the two international airports here saying that since Monday night, more than 1,100 flights have been facilitated, saying that 105,000 outbound seats have managed to be put into place.

So a lot of people are managing to get out there are an awful lot more that would like to get out, but we are seeing an increased number of these flights now when it comes to Qatar, for example, we know that the airspace is still closed there but Qatar Airways has said that they are operating more flights now from different areas. Oman, for example, which has its airspace still open. We know a number of people have been trying to move across land to get to Muscat to try and fly out from there.

We heard from the U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer just yesterday, on Thursday, saying in the middle of the day, 4,000 U.K. citizens had managed to get out of the UAE to the U.K., and he said that they were going to be a number of more repatriation flights that were going to be carried out Thursday night and then overnight as well.

So, it is picking up speed. At this point, though it is people who already had a ticket for the past seven days that had it canceled to buy a new ticket is economically restrictive as well as difficult to even find a seat. We just had a look online trying to find an Emirates flight from Dubai to London.

We couldn't find one until this time next week, and it was $7,000 one way per passenger, so it is nowhere near what it usually is this Dubai, for example, the international airport is usually the world's busiest international airport. You've usually got about 700 flights a day taking off. Tens of thousands of passengers coming through that airport.

We are still at a fraction of what we saw, but the number of European countries that are starting these repatriation flights from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, also from Oman is starting to pick up. So hopefully within the next few days we will start to see that crunch ease somewhat. I have to point out, though, that there is, of course, still concerns about the fact that there could be incoming projectiles in the air. In fact, the French transport minister said that one French repatriation flight had to be turned around.

Coming from the UAE, they said because there was missile activity in the area. So, there is still obviously that concern. And as of this point, Tehran is showing that it still does have that ability to fire missiles and drones into the Gulf area -- Becky.

ANDERSON: And to provide some assurance, I know that they've been putting fighter jets up in the sky as flights have taken out from Dubai just to accompany those flights out. They turn them around after that, but just to accompany them out to avoid risk and certainly, you know, were you to be a passenger of one of those flights, I'm sure that that would ease your otherwise -- your anxiety somewhat. So, a good support there by the UAE.

All right. Paula, thank you. Paula Hancocks is in Dubai.

Secretary Kristi Noem is out at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. What this means for that agency, which has already been shut down, of course, for weeks. That is just ahead.

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[05:18:26]

HILL: A major shakeup at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. President Trump firing Secretary Kristi Noem amid a DHS shutdown and growing scrutiny over her conduct as secretary. Trump plans to replace her with Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma. He says Mullin will take over at the end of the month. It's important to note, though he does first have to be confirmed by the senate.

As that process kicks into gear, Mullin says he plans to work to earn everybody's vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): Listen, I am super excited about this opportunity. It came at a -- not a complete surprise but it came at a little bit of a surprise for us. And so, the president, as you guys know, are great friends and we get along great. I look forward to working with him in his cabinet, of course, we still got to go. This little thing called confirmation. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: As for Noem, we're learning she will actually remain a member of the administration, serving as special envoy for a new security initiative in the western hemisphere called the Shield of the Americas.

CNN's senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes has more now on what led up to this decision.

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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Now, there have been a series of events leading up to President Trump's firing of Noem that just continued to make the situation exacerbated, but we are told there was one final event that kind of served as the breaking point for President Trump, and that was earlier in the week when Kristi Noem had her senate judiciary hearing.

And this hearing was incredibly contentious, not just between Democratic senators and Kristi Noem, but also between Republican senators and the Department of Homeland Security secretary at one point. And this was a particular point of contention for President Trump.

[05:20:00]

He was -- she was asked if President Trump knew and had signed off on a $200 million ad campaign in which Kristi Noem was featured heavily. It was her talking to people in America who were here illegally and asking them to self-deport, and she said yes, that President Trump had. Well, that enraged President Trump, who started calling members on the hill to tell them, essentially that he had never signed off on this. And he started floating names immediately.

One of the names that kept reoccurring was, of course, Markwayne Mullin and then today, two days after those series of calls happened, we saw the actual firing. Now, White House officials, they do believe that Mullin will be easy to confirm. He is a senator. He has a lot of bipartisan support. Of course, we are in a very politically polarizing time, so we will see if that is in fact the case.

It does appear that Kristi Noem's last day is going to be March 31st. That is the day that President Trump said that he would want to have Mullin approved or confirmed by. There is one other point that I do want to make about all of this. We are told that Kristi Noem was told that she had been fired by President Trump directly before he made this post on social media.

Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Earlier, I spoke with CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein about the firing of Kristi Noem and also the subpoena that was voted on for Attorney General Pam Bondi in Congress. I asked him what all of this could mean for the Trump administration moving forward. Take a listen

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RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I don't think anyone, Erica, believed that Kristi Noem was the architect of the administration's immigration policy. That's Stephen Miller in the White House. But she was the face of it and as the face of it, her instincts were kind of almost uniformly bad.

I mean, both in terms of spending a lot of time, effort and money on promoting herself. And that's one thing we know that Donald Trump does not really like a lot of other stars shining brightly in his orbit but also in the way that she reacted to the killings of the -- of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, her kind of vision that to be almost to play a kind of an exaggerated tough guy in the role and become a very polarizing figure and spend a lot of money promoting herself.

I think her departure shows that this administration is not completely immune to the laws of political gravity. She had clearly become a liability, and in fact, the administration has already, I think, changed direction on how they're executing their kind of mass deportation program. As a result of Minneapolis and Pam Bondi I think with Kristi Noem gone, is the most obvious next target for critics, particularly over her handling of the Epstein files which, you know bipartisan criticism. So, I think it puts her in the spotlight.

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HILL: Republican Representative Tony Gonzales announcing he's ending his reelection bid. This comes after the Texas congressman admitted to an affair with a former staffer who later died by suicide. Gonzales says he does plan to finish out the rest of his term this announcement, though that he will not continue with that reelection bid coming just hours after Republican Party leaders had called for him to withdraw his candidacy. He was set to face Brandon Herrera in a runoff for the Republican primary in the 23rd district in Texas on May 26th.

Much more ahead here. Our coverage of the war with Iran continues, including another drone interception. We are live in Doha and in Washington. Stay with us

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[05:27:51]

ANDERSON: All right. Welcome back. I'm Becky Anderson in our Middle East programming headquarters here in Abu Dhabi in the UAE, covering Israel, U.S., the Israel-U.S. war on Iran.

Right now, CNN correspondent Fred Pleitgen, and his photojournalist and producer Claudio Otto are in Tehran. CNN is the first U.S. network in Iran since the start of the war. It is important to note that CNN is operating in Iran only with permission from the government there.

Here is Fred's latest report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's certainly been quite a kinetic morning here in the Iranian capital, Tehran. There were really heavy airstrikes, I'd say a little bit before dawn. We heard jets flying around this area for an extended period of time.

There were also some massive airstrikes, and we saw thick black smoke billowing from one location, which seemed to be in the central, maybe southern central part of the city as we were driving around. That also went on for an extended period of time as well clearly a very large airstrike that happened there with that plume of smoke hanging over almost the entire city.

This, of course, happens as the United States and Israel continue their air campaign, not just here in Tehran, but in various locations around the country. They say that they're going to continue to try and degrade the Iranian military infrastructure and then also take out, as they put it, key leaders as well.

At the same time, the Iranian government is vowing not to back down, not to negotiate with the United States. And Iran's military says that it is going to continue targeting not just U.S. assets here in this region, like military bases in the Gulf states, but, of course, continue to target Israel as well. The Iranians are saying that their missile stockpiles are still very much filled and that their missiles are very capable as well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Well, nearly a week into the war, Iran is still launching strikes throughout the Middle East. Qatar says it intercepted a drone attack earlier today, targeting the largest U.S. military base in the region. The GCC, as a unit, as it were, is making it very clear that Iran's attacks on this region of the gulf are unjustifiable unprovoked and unlawful. Following a Gulf-EU meeting yesterday, the UAE minister of.