a hamas leader linked to the october 7th massacre. all of this escalating as the conflict could become a regional war. also, with less than two weeks before the iowa caucuses, the race for the white house kicks into gear with top trump challengers. and president biden returning from vacation to face new challenges, as he plans to hit the road with a retooled re-election message. and i ll be joined by the premium ambassador to the united states, after a new year began there with a barrage of deadly strikes against kyiv and kharkiv, and no agreement with continued u.s. military aid. good day, everyone. i m andrea mitchell in washington. tensions are growing throughout the wider middle east today, stoking international fears that the israel hamas war is now spilling far beyond gaza s borders. more than 100 people, including children, are dead after two explosions in iran ripped through crowds commemorating general souleymane. he was the prominent ahead of the revolutionary
on capitol hill, senators negotiating a deal on the border as house speaker mike johnson and fellow republicans are set to visit the border this afternoon. we want to begin this hour with that breaking news out of iran. more than 100 people confirmed killed. iranian officials calling the explosions a terrorist incident. want to bring in now tehran bureau chief ali arouzi who is live for us on the ground in tehran. we spoke last hour, what updates are we getting this hour as to what may have taken place and who is behind it? reporter: hey, yasmin, so we know there were two explosions about 15 minutes apart from each other at 3:00 local. the death toll keeps rising. right now saying at least 103 people have been killed, and over 210 people have now been confirmed injured at that blast, went off near a cemetery in iran where that ceremony was being held to mark the death of soleimani in 2020 by a u.s. drone attack. state media saying there was one explosion and second one du
have, would have, could have. i don t like to make predictions when trials start. i m more comfortable on the political side making predictions than the legal side. i need facts. garrett haake, thank you. joyce vance, stick around for a little longer. we have a lot more to talk about coming up. we re following breaking news out of new jersey, right now police are investigating after an imam was shot outside a mosque in newark. i want to bring in tom winter to talk more about this. this is happening in the last hour or so. what do we know, tom? you re looking at the mosque there, outside of it, according to the safety director, at approximately 6:16 this morning, the imam was near or at the mosque when he was shot. what we don t know right now is what the potential motive may have been for the shooting. that s something that law enforcement is eager to figure out themselves, why this could have happened, was this individual shot because of their faith, because they re a leader i
again, indications are that this was israel, has not taken responsibility for this strike. if we talk about provocation and escalation, the provocation and escalation was october 7th when hamas perpetrated the worst massacre of jews since the holocaust, abducting, mutilating, raping. that is the very root of everything we re seeing today. and so whether or not israel carried out the strike in beirut that took out the senior hamas leader, israeli leaders have said no one who participated in the october 7th massacre will be safe. but going after a hamas leader in beirut, in lebanon, and the general who said it doesn t necessarily think it was the right calculation made by israel, that s what the general just said, it does seem somewhat of a provocation when it comes to hezbollah. they said they don t want to get involved in this conflict. now we wonder will they change
a hamas leader linked to the october 7th massacre. all of this escalating as the conflict could become a regional war. also, with less than two weeks before the iowa caucuses, the race for the white house kicks into gear with top trump challengers. and president biden returning from vacation to face new challenges, as he plans to hit the road with a retooled re-election message. and i ll be joined by the premium ambassador to the united states, after a new year began there with a barrage of deadly strikes against kyiv and kharkiv, and no agreement with continued u.s. military aid. good day, everyone. i m andrea mitchell in washington. tensions are growing throughout the wider middle east today, stoking international fears that the israel hamas war is now