of isis. isis represent as clear and present danger and immediate threat to europe and ultimately a threat to the united states homeland. in closing, the syrian regime should think long and hard before it again acts so recklessly in violation of international law against the use of chemical weapons. general votel will provide further information on the strike. thank you, mr. secretary. as secretary mattis stated, the united states central command was directed to develop military options in response to the syrian regimes of chemical weapons. we did that and had a star get strike package with the goal of top eliminate those capabilities that provided offensive military capacity for the regime. we did not deliberately target personnel in these strikes. once the order was received, we targeted 59 locations and struck 57 of those. we assessed that we achieved our
capabilities and general votel, we re in the process of isolating raqqa right now. does the coalition and our partner force there s have what they need to begin the offensive on raqqa and what more resources do they need? the syrian air force is not in good shape. it s been worn down by years of combat, plus some significant maintenance problems. we thought it was i thought it was about 20%. i think it s around 20 aircraft that were taken out, which equates to that. i probably shouldn t use the 20%. we re trying to provide information as it comes in. this is one of the challenges of trying to get it accurate but get it out as quickly as we can give you some fidelity. it s around 20 aircraft. that damage to the syrian air force is pretty severe, as you can tell. with respect to what s going on in raqqa, i thought we had the capabilities to do what
tomorrow? general votel, have you seen any evidence that the iranians were involved in the chemical attack and in particular, any evidence that as sad is moving his chemical stockpiles around in syria? jennifer, the strike that we re talking about here today was directed at the people that planned it, that held on to the weapons, contrary to what they had promised the international community and the united nations when they said they got rid of those weapons. the reason for the strike was that alone. it was not a harbinger of some change in our military campaign. jennifer, i m unaware of any information regarding iran s participation in this. you know, i think we have seen some information that the regime has moved some aircraft and things around. i imagine there s some movement
president donald trump is absolutely committed to taking those steps that are necessary to destroy us. bret: the vice president there. also on capitol hill, general votel, head of command, he said he pledged to the commanders to meet their request and the conventional troops on the ground in syria was one of the request. what we don t know is how many troops and there s also a call, we are back with the panel, for increases in afghanistan. general votel seeing more troops on the ground in afghanistan. my questioning was about when do you brief the people. a lot of criticism of president obama that he didn t bring america with the effort. when do you make the case? i sure wondered the same thing, especially with the rather stark statement by general votel about there being a stalemate in afghanistan we can t break. when does president trump come
preventing mission creep in terms of finding ourselves committed not to just destroying isis but somehow refereeing a complicated situation. i foresee a train wreck. stick we have learned 1,000 u.s. soldiers are being sent to kuwait to serve as a reserve force. bret: jennifer griffin, thank you. general votel also says an exhaustive review of the u.s. trade in yemen that left a navy seal dead concludes there were no lapses in judgment or decision-making surrounding the operation. chief special warfare officer william ryan owens died. six other american service members were injured and a u.s. helicopter was lost. general votel says the u.s. did gain valuable information during the raid. congressional leaders were briefed late today on what investigators have uncovered so far about russian activities leading up to last november s election. fbi director james comey was proud of the classified briefing