of the most important responsibilities to lay out the plans for attacks like these, and the risks of a military strike. in this case, one of the biggest dangers was the unknown. how would iran react to it? our barbara starr report from the pentagon. with president trump calling off strikes against iran and refocusing his attention on the possibility of additional economic sanctions, the pentagon is candidly taking a bit of a deep breath. there had not been overwhelming enthusiasm for those strikes against iran, because one of the enduring questions that military leaders had here was what would iranian reaction be to a u.s. strike. they were very clear in their minds, that they simply could not predict how iran might react if the u.s. was to engage in military activity. the plan had been to strike three missile sites along the coastline. there were u.s. aircraft, u.s.
offering but it really just underscores the sensitivity and the urgency of this situation. officials say they need to figure out exactly what happened and what isis has in its inventory now. pamela? a lot of looming questions, barbara starr, thank you so much. i want to bring in republican congressman peter king of new york. he is a leading member of the house homeland security and intelligence committees. congressman, i want to talk to you about isis using mustard agent as a weapon as we heard barbara starr report. first, can you confirm that isis leader abu bacher al baghdadi sexually abused kaila muler? pamela, what i can tell you is that the reports throughout the spring that she had been subject to sexual abuse by isis leaders, also reports that al baghdadi was interested in her. so these reports, while i can t confirm them, are very consistent with what we ve been hearing the last six months. and again, if it did happen, it s absolutely terrible. it s horrific.
think what secretary kerry referenced the iraqi government come out and say they want to take aggressive actions to take back ramadi. i remind you just a month ago with the backing of the united states with coalition forces they took back tikrit. they ve had successes. they ve taken back about 25% of populated areas. obviously ramadi was a setback, but they are committed to fighting and committed to taking back land from isis. you heard our pentagon correspondent barbara starr report that the u.s. military inadvertently shipped anthrax to nine states as well to a base in south korea. has the president been informed about what s going on, and how this could possibly happen? well obviously the president stays in close touch with all of his national security team and leaders. i don t have an update for you today. this is something as your reporter barbara starr reported that the pentagon and the department of defense is tracking closely and working on. they re obviously in the lead
very dangerous place and isis was not going to get up and walk away and not fight when we hem the iraqis take the fight to them. in term of the al assad base bits the size of boulder, colorado. these attacks are putting folks at risk but putting it in some perspective is helpful. they re very random. they re not targeted. they re ricky but it is a very big area. and it is not just u.s. troops there. it is iraqis as well. we heard barbara starr report a little while ago that the penn is about to sell to the iraqis battle tanks, sophisticated weapons. how concerned are you that the iraqi military might simply abandon these as they ve done over the past year or so. and they wind up using military sophisticated u.s. military equipment. i think what you saw when isis first made its advance,
remain locked up. let s start with our new details out of washington now. emily schmidt is more with more on this. what have what have we learned with what precipitated the embassy closers? we have no information. barbara starr report that is an intercepted message of senior al qaeda operatives within the last few days really caused the concern. cnn agreed to a request from an obama administration official not to go in to details about the message all because of its sensitivity. we know that this message was a critical factor leading to the shut-down and not the only factor. several u.s. officials said they have seen an increase of threats of yemen for weeks. there have been some major prison breaks in the region that was affected, leaving al qaeda members who were behind bars unaccounted for. regardless, this was an unprecedented move. we saw something we don t always see in washington agreement