BREAKING: US launches new strikes against Iran in 'powerful' response

Breaking news into the newsroom.We are hearing from U .S.CENTCOM that U .S.forces have begun launching strikes against Iran.

It started at 8 p .m.Eastern Time today.They say the strikes are a powerful response to yesterday's attempted Iranian attacks on U .S.forces based in the Middle East.

Let's bring in retired Marine intelligence officer, national security analyst and the host of The Strat Podcast, Hal Kempfer.He's here with me to discuss.OK, Hal, we're just getting started.kind of coming online as these strikes are being announced by the U .S.military.

So precise information is sparse for now.Perhaps we'll get more details as the night moves forward.One thing I notice in this that I don't typically see them use in these posts, they use the word powerful response.Why would they feel the need to put a word like that in there, given what the Iranians did just yesterday?

Well, Austin, I think part of it is because of what the president said today.He used some pretty strong and at one time very graphic language to describe what the strikes would look like, the retaliation would look like for what the Iranians did.And I think that Senkam is just picking up on that and using the term powerful.Now, powerful might infer that it's more powerful than what we've seen before.And that could infer a lot of different systems, perhaps more B -1 bombers coming in, delivering a tremendous amount of ordnance, something that, you know, far beyond what they can do with, you know, F -16s or F -18s alone.So there could be some other things.

I'm really curious to see what we hit.That's gonna answer a lot of questions.The president was talking about hitting bridges.He was talking about hitting power plants.Now, I should mention, If these were only for civilian use, yeah, they could be construed as a war crime.But if they're dual use, if the military uses them along with civilians, then they are lawful targets under the international laws of war.

about hitting those and that would be a very powerful strike because literally it's turning out the lights and it stops the ability of people to move from one city to the other.So that could be what he's implying as well.

As we learn more about the situation, I can't help but think about the wider prospects and what we've been seeing in other countries as of late.The Saudis getting directly involved, we've learned within the past 24 hours.They struck at an Iran -backed group in Iraq.Of course, the Houthis in Yemen have been something we've been tracking as well, Hal.What countries are you watching?Other than the U .

S.and Iran, what other countries are you watching closely this week?Would Saudi Arabia be the top one?

That would be the top one.I'm curious what the Saudis are doing.They are now engaged.They have been engaged with the Houthis.The Houthis have been targeting the Saudis.They hit a couple of major ports.

They hit the east -west pipeline itself.That's that big pipeline that runs across the country, carries about 7 million barrels of oil a day.They hit that.That's the That's like the backup plan, if you will.If you can't get oil out of the Strait of Hormuz, you send to East -West, it goes to the Red Sea.A lot of that oil that goes to the Red Sea and to the port of Yambu, goes out the Boba Mendeb, straight into the Indian Ocean, then out to Asia.

Well, by the Houthis saying they're putting a naval blockade on the Saudis, had blocked those ships from going that way, which means they'd have to go all the way up to the Suez Canal, all the way around, the Horn of Africa, which has a tremendous amount of cost.And then today, a drone hit Egypt around the Suez Canal.Now, it's not clear where the drone came from.It could be from the Houthis.We're not sure.But that's blocking off the Saudis from exporting anywhere.

And the Saudis, of course, just got involved with that joint strike mission with the U .S.going up to Iraq to retaliate against the Popular Mobilization Front strikes in Saudi Arabia.So the big question is, will Saudi Arabia join in on going after the mothership for all these groups, which is Iran?And if they do, they bring a lot to the fight.They've got about 230 plus strike aircraft.

They could really dramatically change the equation.And they're right there.So you're talking about shorter sorting times.There's just a lot of things that could happen.Of course, the other side is everyone is nervous.Will the Iranians start striking fragile infrastructure, oil, gas, and of course, those desalination plants.

Everyone's nervous about that.And everyone's running kind of low on air defense weaponry.So I'm going to watch the Saudis.

The Iranians, they restarted the fight.They struck first.And I had a question about, you know, Iran having the ability to do that and the confidence to do that, to test the pause in the fighting in such a way, Hal, does that tell us a little bit about the calculus and how Iran is thinking about how they navigate this war moving forward?

I don't think they're using calculus.I think it's basic arithmetic.Basically, what you have up in Tehran is you have this hardliner Revolutionary Guard Corps group led by General Vahidi.That's the IRGC.And some of the IRGC commanders are actually out there launching strikes.It's not clear that they ever had any, you know, clearance or guidance from above to do so.

They just launch these strikes.Then you have what's now being termed the pro -compromise group, which could be President Podestian, their foreign minister, Gallabaf, the head of their legislature, who's been leading the negotiation team.They're for negotiating in good faith.compromising on things in order to stop the war.And then there's a small group out there, which is a third group, which is never negotiate with the Americans, never negotiate with the great Satan, never.And even though they're not as big, they're not part of the other two big two factions, they are very influential.

One of their leaders held a key seat in the National Security Council with the Supreme Leader.So you have this going on, which makes it very difficult to negotiate and makes for this rather difficult to discern policy, if you will, coming out of Iran.We're just never quite sure.You know, we think, well, maybe they're going to stop fighting, and then they just start fighting again.I think that's what we're seeing here.