the light. reporter: and something else the united states government says is that we need to make sure that we have 20 of our 30,000 pound bunker busters battle ready and soon, they asked congress for 81 million dollars for urgent upgrades to the bunker busters, penetrators, and admiral chief schwartz says that the upgrades are not linked to what s going on in iran. kelly. kelly: interesting thought there at the end there. they do want to increase those bunker buster bombs to penetrate deeper. peter doocy, thanks for the report. jamie: kelly, this is just out of syria, and it s a situation that cannot be ignored. there are dire new warnings from one bomb-scarred rebel city. and they re saying now that they re running dangerous any low on basic necessities, and world affairs contributor, streaming live from the the border in lebanon. dominic, how bad is it now?
the southwestern border of syria where we find our own correspondent, dominic di-natale, world affairs contributor. what is happening in aleppo today there, dom in this case? reporter: a major counteroffensive by government forces against rebel positions there after they stormed the very center of picture. this is the latest pictures we have, bill. fighter jets have been seen over the city, firing guns at rebel positions near the old citadel. we understand helicopters with rockets fired on those positions. rifles with machine guns can t repel fire power of that magnitude. it will be a very tough fight. thousands of troops apparently were ordered into the city by the regime. we understand tanks have been withdrawn from the turkish border on the very day turkey actually closed those border posts over concern of an influx of refugees. no wonder there would be so many refugees after heavy
republic considering extending its oil embargo to other european countries. tehran upset over a pending european embargo over its nuclear program. head of iran state-owned oil company blaming the rising tensions on european leaders claiming iran has quote, never used oil as a political lever, unquote. new reports of forces loyal to the syrian president bombarding the rebel stronghold of homs. [explosion]. patti ann: syrian activists say government troops and tanks killed more than a dozen people there, sparking new fears of a ground attack and all-out civil war. world affairs contributor, dominic di-natale streaming live from beirut, lebanon. how intense is the battle today? reporter: we heard there were 250 shells and rockets targeted specifically at a neighborhood. residents in the city saying that the shells were following falling in dozens