We begin in niger, where the Breaking News in the last half an hour is the military leaders who staged a coup say they have closed the countrys airspace over what they called the threat of intervention against them. The announcement came as a deadline expired for them to restore the ousted president or face the possible action from the west African Regional grouping known as ecowas. Earlier thousands of people gathered in nigers capital to support the militaryjunta, despite International Condemnation of the soldiers actions. Some neighbouring countries including mali, burkina faso and guinea have voiced support for the coup leaders. And algeria, which Borders Niger to the north, has said it is categorically against armed intervention. France says it will support efforts by ecowas to restore nigers elected president. Nigers Prime Minister was in paris on saturday, meeting lawmakers and greeting protestors outside the countrys embassy. He has dismissed that pro coup protests are taking p
Hello, im alex marquardt. Welcome to the cnn newsroom. We are following Breaking News. Iran has launched an attack act against israel. If youre just joining us dozens of iranian drones are now bound for israel as well as Cruise Missiles, according to the israeli news media yeah, this of course, leaving the entire middle east and beyond very much on edge is forces are planning to intercept as many of those aircraft and missiles as possible. The United States has said they will help with those interceptions at best they can at this hour. However, we do not yet know what the results of these attacks may be just moments ago, the white house said that this attack is expected to unfold over the next few hours. It is just past midnight in israel, we have got reporters and analysts all over the map as we try practice news including mj lee at the white house, Jeremy Diamond in jerusalem, clarissa ward, and tel aviv and ben wedeman in beirut. I want to get straight to our ben wedeman who is in l
the reuion? . . .,, what roles russia and france play in the region? the region? france has traditionally -la ed a the region? france has traditionally played a major the region? france has traditionally played a major role the region? france has traditionally played a major role in the region? france has traditionally played a major role in the - the region? france has traditionally played a major role in the region, l played a major role in the region, it has been a security partner to niger and many others in the region for decades, frankly. obviously, as the counterterrorism fight has come more serious and severe, we have seen france s roll increase in many of these countries. but in a place like niger they have been trying a new approach allowing the people there to really lead in that mission and like washington playing very much a support role to niger s military in that fight. rush i think we can not overstate russia s role, we can not overstate russia s role, we have ov
get all of those u.s. troops out of theroe, out of harm s way an get them i just quickly wanted to mention this notion that the president saying that others can handle america s counterterrorism fight, you have a lot of special operations forces right now not putting their name to it, but the ones who have prosecuted the war on terror speaking out about their dismay, to put it politely, about what is happening. it should not be ignored that this is extraordinary. special operations forces don t speak out. they are the quiet warriors. they obey the orders. they go about their business. it should concern pentagon leadership and everybody, when you see troops beginning to question the president s orders even on background, that is
allies in europe, to the united states itself, and to the region. this is a counterterrorism fight that we re in. it s not picking sides in a civil war. president trump inherited that operation well under way with isis on the ropes and under president trump, the fight was continued against isis and largely they have been contained in the caliphate such as it was dismantled. but as we ve seen many times in this part of the world, isis or al qaeda or whatever it is has an ability to reconstitute itself. so our presence in northern syria and really talking about just a few hundred u.s. military advisers, trainers, was essential to supporting the kurds thousands of whom took the fight to isis on our behalf with our prejudice of support. a pledge of support. what we did in walking away was two bad things. to convey the message to them