US retaliatory strikes in Syria and Iraq: 85+ targets hit, 125 munitions employed | LiveNOW from FOX

Breaking news coverage of this ongoing situation in Iraq and Syria I believe us centcom just sent out a new update yep there it is so stom statement on us strikes in Iraq and Syria at 4 Eastern Time February 2nd us Central Command otherwise known as centcom forces conducted air strikes in Iraq and Syria against Iran's Islamic revolutionary.

Guards Corps the irgc um and Affiliated militia groups US military forces struck more than 85 targets with numerous aircraft to include long range bombers flown from the United States though uh we're going to just continue I know it's cut off on the screen here but we're reading the F Suite on paper the facilities that were.

Struck included command and control operations centers intelligence centers rockets and missiles as well as unmanned aerial vehicle storages and Logistics and munition supply chain facilities of militia groups and their irgc sponsors who facilitated attacks against us and Coalition forces that is the latest word this is just coming out now so we have.

The perfect person standing by to help us digest this information uh we and we do want to uh make sure that we have our ducks in a row here standing by because we do have Hal keer joining us right now Hal uh it's nice to see you we appreciate you hopping on for this breaking news coverage we first want to just break break down what we have so.

Far in front of us here we're seeing that the US military forces struck more than 85 targets with numerous aircraft to include longrange bombers flown from the United States so we don't know exactly uh what we we have some idea of what's been targeted so far I guess my question for now how would be did we wait too long for this we've been.

Expecting this for days did we give uh perhaps the people that were Target in enough time to leave these areas Austin that's a really good question and I've been kind of looking at that as well you know we telegraphed and telegraphed and telegraphed uh on this uh you know I was I was remarking as someone yesterday that um I think our.

Most U powerful offensive weapon we've used so far is just talking about what we're going to do however with that said you saw 85 uh different strikes uh that were done that that tells you something and one of the things that's coming out of the Pentagon is the b1b Lancers which are strategic bombers uh they're not something we.

Necess would have positioned in the region so we would have to they said they're flying them in from the United States those are big missions those are not those are missions that take some prep time uh they also have to look at the type of ordinance that they're going to do but that makes sense that with those missions and I should mention that.

Each one b1b can carry about 75,000 th000 pounds of explosives or ordinance it's got three different Bays they can do this in they can carry it's probably a shorter list of what they can't carry than what they can carry in terms of or delivered air delivered ordinance and that gives us the ability to hit a large variety of.

Targets that's why you're seeing uh what you're seeing now this isn't going in there and dropping a few bombs on a uh you know an Islamic resistance site this is hitting uh a dozens of major target areas with at least 85 strikes uh you know over Iraq and Syria uh they looking at intelligence uh intelligence outposts if you will.

Intelligence collection uh capabilities they're looking at drones they're looking at missiles they're looking at their launchers or looking at storage areas they're basically looking at everything that the uh the these proxies these iranium proxies use to hit uh US forces uh in the region the other thing I might mention too is and we we kind of.

Telegraph this that we were looking at uh irgc Iranian revolutionary guard Corps aloud's Force if you will uh Personnel in the area and and it may be that one of the reasons and this is purely speculation we'll find out at some point I imagine this we weren't entirely sure where all this stuff was located we maybe didn't have the same.

Intelligence assets focused on it before that we have Focus now because of what happened and so part of it was to get them to move and that's a Time proven tactic which is you say you're going to do something and then you kind of watch them scurry and uh and as they move stuff they store stuff then you kind of validate what targets you need to hit I.

Mean they move it into an underground facility from where it was before you didn't know where it was before but now you know it's an underground facility and we have ordinance that can you know go in there and hit underground facilities and cause all sorts of damage so there's a lot of reasons why they may have wanted to go down the route that we.

Saw one is to get the bombers in place to hit the number of targets that we wanted to prosecuted and then the other was to gather the intelligence to verify where those things actually were and it may be there was a doubt on a number of different targets they wanted to validate that so they took some operational risk which is tell them that.

We're going to come give an idea of what we're going to do and then see what they do and see if they reveal their their footprint if you will across Iraq and Syria there were some initial explosions reported in Syria there was actually some confusion as this news was coming out initially there were initial reports of explosions in Syria but this was.

Before it was confirmed that the US had actually started its retaliatory strikes do we have any information so far if those explosions were an isolated incident or were they a part of these us strik do we know anything so far about that Austin right now that's a bit of a mystery uh no one's quite sure uh what they're saying is they weren't part of.

The strike missions now with that said uh we have more than just aircraft and missiles that can deliver ordinance uh in my career I have commanded you know special teams that go in there and we sometimes will set explosive charges to blow things up uh that's just one of the missions that we had and uh and it's it's not impossible that we may have.

Used some sort of Special Operations capability uh on the ground uh it may be that we detected that there was some sort of air defense capability that they certainly they're expecting that we're going to hit them with aircraft so uh it would not be unusual for them to move uh air defense capabilities in there to try and more effectively Target our.

Aircraft um and therefore maybe it was decided that we need to take out some of their air defense capabilities before we bring in something as big as say a B1 bomber to deliver a lot of ordinance which apparently it did um and so I don't rule out anything you know when you get into the operational planning process it's a very iterative back and.

Forth sort of thing you look at what you have what you want to do you look at the variety of means that we have to do it we have bases in Syria um you know we have Personnel in there it's no secret that our special operations forces operate in Syria and Iraq at times and and uh and maybe that's what was decided was that they're going to go ahead and.

Use these guys probably more in Syria and the reason I say Syria is there's actually a a functional government in Iraq and one that we have you know uh diplomatic relations with and so there might be reasons why we might show some restraint in that regard Syria it's really dysfunctional all across the board it's uh the territory is not.

Consolidated under one government we don't have any relationship at all with the Assad government at all so they could complain all day and we frankly wouldn't care but um uh but it is a little bit more let's just say open architecture in terms of where we can hit there and if I was going to use my special operations forces I'd probably.

Be inclined to use them more in Syria than I would in Iraq but we shall find out uh once we know more and they're not going to say anything because whatever we did uh we want to make sure that our our forces are back safe before we say anything at all so we don't know you touched on this already but you know what type of presence did the US already.

In the areas in and around Iraq and Syria before this happened oh well we got a few thousand troops uh divided between the two countries um you know we have troops in Syria itself um not as many as Iraq I think Iraq we got about 2500 uh it's significantly less that we have actually in Syria and those are.

Primarily focused on anti-isis missions uh so there's a lot of things where they're doing uh intelligence surveillance Rec consant uh but also so uh you know there's small teams that do things in there as well and uh so there's a there just they're bases scattered all over sencom actually puts out a map on a regular basis that shows.

Where a lot of our bases are or installations facilities if you will uh in Iraq and sencom so um we do have a footprint they are mobile you know we we're we're bringing vehicles in uh across the ground we bring aircraft in uh we've been in there for years and years and and so it's not a it's you know it's not not a secret that we we.

Have a physical presence in both these countries but but uh a rather interesting presence in Syria when we talk about this attack taking place and the timing of this attack um do you think it's a coincidence that this seems to have happened right after the dignified transfer of those three soldiers today I.

I think the timing may have been tied to that the dignified transfer happened and then the bombings began and it may be that they really want to complete the dignified transfer get that done and not have that detract or you know not have anything involved with that uh be you know be be detracted by having an ongoing combat operation kick off uh.

Either before or right at the same time uh as it works now it's sequential and and really when you look at how we deliver the ordinance uh an hour here or an hour there um you know it can be adjusted many times what I understand is the weather's pretty clear over there it's uh it's it's uh cool obviously uh it's.

Winter time but it's pretty clear and it's uh fairly permissive for flight operations and just about any other type of operation so therefore uh it was an opportune time to do this and there's a lot of considerations that go into these things part of it is we look at obviously weather is a huge issue anytime you're doing any type of.

Military operation uh and and so the weather was very permissive uh it's it's night over there so uh very permissive uh for doing that and then the other thing is uh are our forces uh AR raay are they in place can we do the mission and there's a lot of things with something like this where you have to do a lot of Preparatory work you got to get.

The ordinance delivered to the aircraft you have to have the right aircraft there they have to do the mission workups for these particular missions obviously whatever they're doing here is a u there's a certain amount of operational risk that all these air Crews and anyone else involved are undertaking because it is uh significant.

Combat operations in that regard so there's a lot of things that they've been working on uh behind the scenes we don't see this uh but it all ends up with what you see tonight where you see this wide array and by the way I should mention this is going to be a multiple at least what the Pentagon is saying it's going to be a not just a oneof as.

They say and I think secretary Austin actually used that term yesterday in a press conference it's going to be an iterative thing this can go on for days so we've seen 85 um strikes if you will today I don't know what we're going to see tomorrow um but my guess is that as we degrade things we'll be watching very.

Closely as to what these proxies are doing and uh either we're going to keep reducing the targets we know or we're going to see new targets present themselves and we'll prosecute those targets but eventually the goal is to degrade their capability to do anything like what they did in Jordan and uh and frankly to to degrade any capability.

They have to hit any of our bases anywhere in the region do you expect any kind of response from Iran or Iran's proxies after this I know there were some reports after that Jordan attack that some of them had scaled back and said they were no longer going to get into any fights with the US basically Bally yeah that would be uh I think it.

Was cadb or Hezbollah it's a uh it's a group that's uh under the Islamic resistance in uh in Iraq and uh they said you know after they've already done the attack theor say we're not going to do any more attacks well it doesn't quite work like that uh you don't get to do an attack and then walk away and not and and not be held responsible for what.

You did so they're going to be hit uh I think Syria I think what you're going to see with Iran is certainly you're going to see a lot of overblown rhetoric and certainly for their own domestic audience they're going to say a lot of things which are very offensive um U not just offensive and as it we're not going to like what they have to say but.

Offensive and that they're going to be pushing forward making it sound like we're going to take the Jihad or the war to us and and everything like that I think there's going to be a gap between what they say and what they do and what Iran does not want is the US to attack Iranian territory they don't want to go head-to-head with the United States.

Because they they know how that's going to end um and by the way if they have any doubts on how it's going to end just look back at what happened next door in Iraq 21 years ago that's a pretty good indication of of what the US can manifest and what it's capable of doing uh so uh they don't want to do a head-to-head thing and there are there.

Are indications I don't know how much to read into this but there's been a lot over this last few days maybe over this last week where it's it's felt that maybe Iran had had overreached that in its broader strategy of building up these proxies and giving them capabilities in terms of.

Sophisticated drones and missiles to attack not just land bases but if you go out to the houthis to to conduct this massive sea attacks that they've been doing that maybe they've gone too far and that they're trying to pull back uh on what they're doing so we're going to find out okay now I'm seeing a the the what we have here it says 125 Precision.

Munitions that by the way seems about right and that's what I would find fairly consistent if you had uh two to four uh b1b um bombers coming in they would deliver uh an an ordinance load uh Precision munition ordinance load that would be along the lines of what we see here that's that's much more than what you'd see with say f18s or or F 15s or.

F16s you know some of the some of the more strike aircraft fighter bomber aircraft these dedicated bombers can just carry a lot more ordinance uh we don't have as many of them but they can carry a lot more ordinance when we talk about 125 Precision Munitions can can you put that in layman's terms is that a sizable uh strike would you say well.

Yeah I mean you're talking Munitions that could be anywhere I don't know if we're dropping 2,000lb bombs but somewhere between 250 to probably th PB bombs maybe uh depends on the how long you want the ordinance to go thousand is tougher to do with an extended range so you might see a a lighter H bomb so I can get more range out of it uh but uh.

But yeah you're talking about sizable ordinance going in and and hitting these things and and trust me when they hit a target with that type of ordinance they uh they cause tremendous Devastation also they're extremely precise and the intelligence is so good that you know they know exactly what they're going to hit they know exactly how to set the.

Fuse there's a lot of things that that go with this so if it's underground or in a a a reinforced structure or something uh the the ordinance will be or the Munitions themselves will be adjusted to take that into account and uh and they will get the maximum amount of destructive force on whatever Target they're going after this is the last.

Thing I want to ask before we go here how does and and we hear so often that we're striking iran-backed proxy groups how does Iran support these proxy groups financially otherwise well that's that's an interesting question and they have a variety of means by which they do it uh financially uh it's through every moneya laundering scheme you can ever possibly.

Think of one of the things that Hezbollah is uh very good at is is money laundering that's one of their stock and trade uh things they've been doing for the last shot 40 some years uh that's what we mostly see them doing uh in the United States with his bu activity here is they're not so much U making terrorist attacks in the US but what.

They are is they're making money for hisbah through counterfeit good schemes and with counterfeit Goods you can also move value in ways that you're not moving actual cash cash I should say uh either electronically or physically by moving cash so they'll do counter trade type schemes if you will sophisticated B schemes in order to do things trading.

Real estate is something else along with other real property or real assets like boats planes uh all sorts of stuff uh yes it's not just in the movies they will move things like diamonds and and artwork and all sorts of things that could be used to transfer wealth around the world and they try to do that in such a way to avoid all the the hooks.

That we have in the system that prevent that illicit mve of money or wealth uh to these terrorist groups so they that's one of the ways they can do it uh illegal oil transfers is another way that they can move wealth and realize the money in one place without having to move the money in another place and there's a Vari schemes like that and.

Then they have uh kind of like a I mean you could call it a rat line if you will to use a World War II term but they have a a variety of ways that they can move surreptitiously covertly uh weapons arms person El throughout What's called the Shia Crescent area you know from Iran up through Iraq up into Syria over to Lebanon and a variety of means.

There some aircraft capabilities certainly uh some uh Maritime capabilities but a lot of it's just moving stuff by truck and uh this may come as a shock but sometimes they you know there may be inspectors or or or whatever on the on the roads and uh Smugglers will sometimes pay off people not to look inside a truck I know that's.

A shocker but it does happen and uh and so they have ways of moving this stuff over land getting it into Syria getting it over to Iraq and also you have to recognize that uh you know the um the most of the population of Iraq is is Shiite uh the the the you know the center of gravity if you will for the Shiite Muslim world is Iran and.

Therefore uh there's a lot of influence that Iran has throughout Iraq so using Iraq is not just a destination for this stuff but is a Transit area for this stuff hasn't been particularly tough uh for uh uh for Syria or for Iran to to make happen we don't have as large a footprint when we're physically there uh you know with combat operations on the.

Ground we could there in such a way that we can do that so they can move stuff around that way and and therefore they can get these missiles in there one thing I would say is it is highly probable that what I just talked about are some of the things that they're trying to figure out how to intercept maybe they can't do the money.

Transfer stuff that's a different thing they got a whole sanctions regime and other things they do to go after that but in terms of arms transfers and and U and those way stations and storage areas and all the other things that goes with the weapons that's specifically areas that are looking at hitting because they want to take that out they want to.

Degrade those capabilities all right Hal Kemper we got to leave it there for now we appreciate your expertise as always uh we'll be checking in soon thank you okay thank you Austin

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