Encouraged arab countries to take on the sunni arab threat. First, we start with pamela. What are you hearing about the lone wolf terror tactics . Reporter well, anderson, weve heard there was a bulletin sent out regarding the strikes overnight that were successful regarding the group known as khorasan and isis. But as a result they were concerned it could embolden the homegrown extremists, People Living there who may systmpathi with al qaeda or the homeland. Were asking that they look for changes in behavior and appearances in people they may be tracking. Looking for anyone who may be pushing extremism in the wake of these strikes. So essentially this was sent to Law Enforcement as a precaution. We should point out this is not people who have necessarily fought in syria or iraq coming back. This is people who may have never traveled overseas at all but just watched videos on the internet, or watched sermons on the internet. Right, in fact, we know that officials are monitoring about 100 individuals that could be lone wolf terrorists that they say could have the tendency to sort of go over that line and become a lone wolf terrorist. And especially theyre concerned because isis released videos in the recent days urging the lone wolf attacks. So that coupled with the airstrikes, has many on alert. Pamela brown, thank you. More now on the airstrikes, so much as pamela mentioned that not only targeted isis but also a littleknown al qaeda spinoff called the Khorasan Group. Now, the leader was killed sources say, something we have to independently confirm. Barbara starr is at the pentagon tonight. The first round of strikes, do we know exactly what they accomplished, according to the u. S. . Well, according to the u. S. They believe they were effective and accomplished a great deal, 48 aircraft, including those from five countries, they went against the khorasan targets, eight war ships firing against the targets, anything the u. S. Could get at khorasan to try to disrupt their planning. They believe here at the congress they have disrupted and ended their ability to plot against the United States. We shall see if it proves to be true. The second round of strikes against isis targets, further into northern syria, that is what everybody expected them to go after. Again, leadership communications, anything they could get to, to stop isis from being able to communicate among the troops to pass orders to try and essentially try to stop them in their tracks. But again, the Battle Damage assessment is ongoing. Well have to see what the pentagon has to say down the road very quickly anderson, about what they believe they accomplished. Is it clear the kind of time line, obviously they said the pentagon was saying just about everybody in washington, including the president. But in terms of actually having targeted they can reach, how active is this Bombing Campaign going to be in the next couple of days, do we know . Reporter well, i think that is the most interesting question right now. They hit about 20 preplanned targets. So these were stationary targets. They had done reconnaissance on them and knew where they were. Stationary targets were relatively simplistic because they knew where the targets were. The question is, where is the next list of targets . What else can you hit that would really disrupt isis and the khorasan . What can you do to get them stopped and moved back from continuing their advance . It will be very interesting to watch over the next couple of nights. Will there be more strikes . How long do they do Battle Damage assessments . When do they move on to develop additional targets that they can hit . Barbara starr, appreciate the update. A short time ago we talked about the limits of airstrikes and duration and limitations. Admiral kerby, you said last nights strikes were only the beginning. The director of operations today said the time frame is years, would you agree with that . I absolutely agree with that 100 . We know were very cleareyed, anderson, about the threat were facing from isis. So are our regional partners, everybody know it will be a long, difficult struggle. And i think were all steeling ourselves for exactly that. And human rights reports show the Collateral Damage from the bombing. Can you confirm that and how big a concern is it for the pentagon . It is always a concern from us, anderson, as you know from reporting our operations in iraq and afghanistan, nothing is more serious than that. We investigate the Collateral Damage, i can tell you right now we have no such indications that we caused any such injuries or Collateral Damage. And the reports, we take them seriously and if we have to well certainly investigate and look into it. And the ground operations in isis and syria and iraq, how long of a time frame will it be to equip the moderate rebels inside syria . It will take us three to five months now that we have the authorization to recruit and vet a significant number of trainees. It will take another eight to 12 months on top of the vetting process to feel them and train them in syria where they can start to defend their communities and citizens. It will take a while, and were being very honest about that. Is there anybody on the ground that you would like to see who is capable of taking advantage of the airstrikes that we are engaging in . What were trying to do is improve the capabilities over time. Their First Priority and weve heard this from them publicly is the overthrow of the regime. Theyre not a monolithic group, we know theyre fighting the regime, that is part of the reason we want to equip them as well. But also theyre getting slaughtered by isol in syria, we know they have to address that threat. They want to. Quite frankly we want to get them a basic set of leadership and military skills, Organizational Skills to defend their communities and citizens. Then they have to go after isol. The Ground Forces that matter the most are the iraqis on the iraq side of the border, a good syrian opposition. To rebuild the Iraqi Military which was obviously trained by the United States, equipped by the United States, you know, under nouri maliki, you had generals paying to become a general. The corruption is rife. How long before you can get them and vet them, train them and get troops willing to stand up and battle . I think there is a little misconception about the iraqi forces. They certainly need more of a group and development, it is an existing army, we now have a unit in iraq that is pledging itself to plurality and responsibility and training the resources and their army it is their army, not ours. Wait a minute, you said you have a new government, they cant figure out a minister, the interior minister, the parliament is a mess. So actually getting them to reach out to sunni groups, getting them. I mean, they can say one thing but actually getting them to rebuild the Iraqi Military, i mean, you have to admit it will take a long time. It could very well take a while. Everybody is cleareyed about this. But all the vectors we see moving around are clearly a challenge. In regards to the strikes against this group, khorasan, cnn has been told there was no intelligence indicating they had chosen a specific place or building that they had acquired materials and were in the advanced stages of planning. Is that your understanding, as well . I would really rather not get into too much intelligence issues here on tv. But what i can tell you is we know they were very close to the end game in their planning. We dont know exactly where the attack they were planning would take place. We think it was either europe or the homeland. There was some information we probably didnt have all the way down to the exact detail. That said, we know they were close. We know they had a very serious intent to conduct the attack on the western targets and that drove a lot of the urgency last night. Thank you, admiral. My pleasure. A reminder, ac360 is live throughout the next two hours here from the u. N. And cnn of course is live all night long bringing you all the latest developments as always. Be sure to set your dvrs, and coming up next one of the big reasons given for striking right in and out. This Khorasan Group, who exactly are they and why are they considered so dangerous and why are any of us just hearing about it for the first time. 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As we have been discussing, military planners say they hit what they hit in part to head off an immediate threat from the al qaeda splinter group, called khorasan, a group you may not have heard of until today. Again, here is our pamela brown. Reporter u. S. Officials say one of the goals of americanled airstrikes in syria was to eliminate the command at control structures of a terrorist group called khorasan. In terms of the Khorasan Group which is a network of seasoned al qaeda veterans these stru strikes were done to stop the attack against the u. S. Targets. The leader is a former al qaeda operative who was part of osama bin ladens terror group, who is deemed to be very dangerous to the United States because of the attacks on targets. An Intelligence Group said they had already acquired materials and was in the advanced stages to carry out an attack. Senior Officials Say that khorasan was creating bombs. What makes the threat a worry is their ties to al qaedas master bomb maker in yemen, alasiri. The concern is alasiri trained people in these techniques, the fear is that some of them have joined this group khorasan and have helped them to develop new techniques. They helped to build the underwear bomb brought to amsterdam from detroit and are planning to blow up printer cartridges. The question remains, did the airstrikes stop ckhorasans plots . The concern is whether the operatives included in these attacks were taken out. If the operatives are still around it is possible they could still carry through with this plot. And pamela brown joins us now. Do we know what type of device they were working on . Well, anderson the latest intelligence suggests the group is trying to put these easily concealed bombs into handheld devices. Were talking cell phones, smartphones, any type of electronic device. You may remember in july security was heightened at International Airports and they asked the passengers to turn on their handheld devices, connected to the intelligence the group was trying to hide the bombs in the handheld devices. Not only that, were talking tooth paste tubes. My colleague said they would use the electronic detonators. I had never heard of that before. What im learning from my source, they had a variety. They were looking at a variety of options putting them in handheld devices, one option they were looking at. In sources tell me it was sophisticated attacks and also smaller less sophisticated attacks they were looking at also. Scary thoughts, thank you so much, pamela brown. And president obama discussed the threat. Once again, it must be clear to anyone who would plot against america and try to do america harm that we will not tolerate safe havens. I have spoken to leaders in congress and discussed bipartisan support for the actions were taking. America is always stronger when we stand united and that unity sends a powerful message to the world that we will do whatever is necessary to defend our country. With me now is president obamas counterterrorism and Homeland Security adviser, thank you for joining us. Good to be with you, anderson. Lets talk about this bulletin that was put out, warning of lone wolf type of attacks, what can you tell us about it . Well, anderson, i think you were referring to an intelligence bulletin that the department of Homeland Security put out. What they do is try to put in context for state and local Law Enforcement officials information and events happening around the world. And that is what they were doing tonight. Trying to make sure that Law Enforcement officials are vigilant for anything that could be ongoing and in relation to events that are happening in the world. Is it based on specific intelligence that is already known . Or is it based on just kind of an obvious well, this could be a very real threat . The bulletin youre referring to was not based on any specific intelligence based on any plotting inside the United States. What this was, was putting into context what we saw last night and the very violent messages from isol that they have been putting out. It is fascinating because there is so much focus on isis and the europeans, americans, fighting there and returning to europe and the United States. But youre talking about not necessarily people fighting overseas who are on the radar for that reason. These are people like the fort hood shooter who may not have traveled overseas before, but may just be watching sermons on the internet and may just be ideology motivated. And we are focusing on the very dangerous groups like the Khorasan Groups, those focused on plotting the attacks, that is what you saw Decisive Action taken by president obama last night with our military forces to try to stop the plotting. The second thing were focused on is the problem of foreign fighters. Those who travel to iraq, syria and other places to get training to come back to their home countries, those with western passports. And the third thing were focused on, those who could be radicalized and are sympathetic to those kind of attacks dont have to be a large scale attack to make an impact. Again, the nidal hasan shooter, and again, the attacks in mumbai, a handful of fighters can really paralyze a city. That is exactly right, anderson, the types of things that can be done with small arms and not very sophisticated capabilities. That is why were doing everything we can to address the violent messages and to counter the messages. You will hear president obama talk about that as far as the foreign fighters meeting at the u. N. Security council. And with the khorasan, a lot of people may have read about it in the New York Times for the first time or maybe are just hearing about it today. How long has u. S. Officials, how long have you been talking about it . We have been focused on this group for a while now, working with our foreign partners for about two years, focused on them. They are a group, as you said, of al qaeda veterans. Do you have a sense of how big they are . They are seasoned operatives, individuals who traveled from afghanistan and pakistan area, from other areas in the middle east, bringing their skills and their expertise and experience to take advantage of the chaos that has happened in syria and the safe haven that has been constructed there really out of the violence and the chaos going on in the conflict there. And that is an important point to show, that theyre not there because of bashar assad, theyre there like a parasite to basically have the protection of the chaos going on. They have gone there precisely because it is a safe haven and because of the chaos, because they have freedom of movement to plan, plot and design attacks against the west. Maybe you cant say, do you have a sense of how big they actually are though . Are we talking about a handful of individuals . A large group . Were talking about a subset group of seasoned veterans, al qaeda operatives, that is why when we had intelligence indicating they were in advanced stages of attacks against the west president obama took Decisive Action against that threat. We talked about the wellknown bomb maker, do you know for a fact or i dont know if you can say members in khorasan, have they been trained by that person . When i think of that guy, i think of that person, clearly theyre looking at the bombs or devices the sources have been describing. That seems like a relatively sophisticated bomb knowledge. Were always going to be very concerned about exactly the threat youre referring to. The threat of aviation plots. And particularly from al qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula which is the group youre referencing, they have proven to be t