i m fredricka whitfield. thank you so much for joining us. new today, iraq is now summoning a top u.s. diplomatic official in protest of a barrage of punishing u.s. air strikes in the middle east. the u.s. says those strikes hit 85 targets linked to iran s islamic revolutionary guard quds force and affiliated militia groups in iraq and syria. the strikes a response to a drone attack in jordan which killed three american soldiers on sunday. iraq is claiming the explosions that just happened involving the u.s. killing 16 people, including civilians. u.s. defense secretary lloyd austin says the strikes are just the beginning of the u.s. response. iran says the u.s. has made a strategic mistake, while iraq and syria say the u.s. actions could inflame more conflict in the region. cnn has teams around the globe covering all of these developments. let s go first to cnn s ben wedeman in jordan. ben, these strikes were sudden, devastating. how are officials on the ground? how are thos
good afternoon, it is saturday, february the 3rd. i am ali velshi. we continue to follow the situation in the middle east where the israel and gaza war continues its steady creep outward, threatening to explode into a widespread regional conflict or worse at any moment. within the last hour, u.s. central command announced a round of strikes, targeting six houthi anti ship cruise missiles preparing to launch among ships in the red sea. this is the latest in the series of strikes that the united states has conducted against the houthi forces who have been targeting vessels, commercial and military, that are sailing among the red sea toward or from the to the crossing in egypt. it is related, but separate from the campaign against iranian-backed proxy forces which are operating in the region, and there are iranian antlers operating alongside them. that started on friday. the biden says that friday strikes against these groups on u.s. troops in the region since the october 7t
of south carolina, saying in part, quote, in 2020, it was the voters of south carolina who proved the pundits wrong, breathed new life into our campaign, and set us on the path to winning the presidency. now, in 2024, the people of south carolina have spoken again. and i have no doubt that you have set us on the path to winning the presidency again, and making donald trump a loser, again. of course, we are also watching breaking news coming out of the middle east. after the united states and the uk launched a new series of strikes today, targeting the houthis in yemen. the attacks hit at least 36 targets in at least 36 locations across the country. a senior biden administration official told nbc news today that the strikes in yemen, and yesterday s attacks on more than 85 targets linked to iranian-backed militias in iraq and syria are not related. but let s go back to politics, first to those live primary results we are getting out of south carolina. our team of correspondent
least a half a dozen targets now largely in eastern syria have been picked by u.s. forces right now where the focus seems to be on getting those that were behind the attacks on those u.s. soldiers, killing three of them and injuring better than 40 last sunday. that was then. the attack is on now. we re told it s a widespread attack zone. but there s some wondering about the sites that were included in this. that these proxy sites, again those sponsored by iran, are the oned targeted. so far no such moves in i ran itself as though some expected. let s get the latest from jennifer griffin, what she s hearing at the pentagon. jennifer? i apologize. we have dan hoffman with us first from moscow. what you know of this right now, what can you tell us and what do you think? yeah, you know, syrian media reports that six targets were struck as many as six or seven may have been killed. take that with a grain of salt. this is the initial forray by the united states. they re hitting t
alarm us, but because they are happening incrementally and because they re happening repeatedly, because trump shocks our system, day after day after day, they become normalized. there is one area of our national politics that probably more than anything else is boiling hot, while also terribly, terribly normal. this is the final battle, with you at my side, we will demolish the deep state. we will expel the warmongers from our government. we will drive out the globalists, we will cast out the common areas, marxists, fascists, we will throw off the sikh political class that hits our country. we will route the fake news media and we will liberate america from these villains, once and for all. this is the final battle, america has to be liberated from villains. former president trump, now candidate trump, posted that video, just a few hours ago. trump claimed that he believes political violence is never acceptable, but rather than actually denouncing political violence, t