Killing 170. 00. Well we begin with perhaps the most serious direct confrontation between iran and the u. S. In decades iran has fired more than a dozen missiles to iraqi bases hosting u. S. Forces in retaliation for the killing of them so the money Iranian Military is warning of further strikes if the u. S. Response but irans foreign minister says he doesnt want war in a moment well have reaction from the u. S. And right across the middle east but 1st rob mustnt begins our coverage. This is irans promised response to the u. S. Assassination of top iranian general high seems on the money Ballistic Missiles soaring into the night sky their targets to Iraqi Military bases housing thousands of u. S. Soldiers iranians are taking the credit to hit back. Directly they wouldnt even leave their proxies to deliver the message that theyre americans its kind of saving faith order for them because killing soleimani is its an insult from the americans to iranian establishment to iranian a state as all and therefore i think youre ronnie and has to retaliate on twitter this was us president Donald Trumps response all is well hes added casualties and damage are being assessed and said so far so good hes also said the u. S. Has the most powerful and well equipped military anywhere in the world by far the question is whether that military will be used to retaliate against these attacks u. S. Troops are based at the side air base in iraq one of the 2 targets hit by iranian missiles ever since president trying to scuttle the. There has been to. Escalation and that either side can afford to give it its own look weak the leaders of both sides have committed to this escalation and its hard to see how how it gets you know where they operate i dont want the u. S. Says its killing of. The leader of irans elite revolutionary guard in an air strike was in response to an attack in iraq in which a u. S. Contract died and through which the u. S. Blames iran. And iran huge crowds have been in mourning and demanding revenge for solem of his death an immediate diplomatic solution to the crisis seems unlikely both sides have to be really true gauge and diplomacy and right now i i fear that i do not see that i do not see either side the iranian or the american will. To do the things necessary to engage in the homeless if. Iran wants u. S. Forces to permanently leave the gulf region and it says there will be a harsh response to any further u. S. Retaliation rob matheson aljazeera. So lets show you exactly where those are rainy and strikes took place 2 iraqi bases were hit one of them is in a bill thats in iraqs semi autonomous kurdish region the other one is in western iraqs Anbar Province its called the main base iraq says 22. 00 missiles were fired in total and that there were no iraqi casualties well we have a team of correspondents monitoring all the latest developments in a fault in iraqs capital. Well have more on President Trumps reaction but 1st lets go straight to our sebag who is live for us in tehran the iranian capital said it was a rather sobering speech from the Supreme Leader had some brainy lengthy praise for custom silliman he didnt. Yes he did got some for the money was a friend of his but also you have to address this because this myside attack is the retaliation that he the i. D. C. Commanders and the people have been talking about is that what the people in the streets have been demanding now gotten so the money was the 2nd most popular figure in this country he was seen as a patriot he was seen as someone that fought isis and prevented them from reaching the borders of iran and now the Supreme Leader ayatollah khomeinis speeches are not usually carried live but this one was he had a theological message for the followers and many of them were holding pictures up of course and so the money he had these words to say today. I will let you down today we are armed the nation of iran is equipped today against the bullies of the world madam will last night we slap the us on the face when it comes to confrontation military actions of this kind are not enough what is important is the corrupt presence of the United States in this region must come to an end they brought war and hostility and deception and destruction to this region wherever they go this happens they are still insisting that this corruption this destructiveness should be imposed on iran. And also we understand that the iranian president Hassan Rouhani has also been talking whats he been saying. Well hes also been coming out with some strong words he said that the United States cut off the hand of god and so the money but iran was cut off their feet and make sure that the u. S. Is ousted from the region now this is something thats been echoed from military commanders here from the people in the streets asking for revenge but as far as iran is concerned this is the end of the matter as long as the United States does not retaliate iran says that they reacted to a specific assassination of general gus and so the money so they were root responding to the United States but if the United States retaliates with escalate the revolutionary guard have issued a warning to. Assad sort of that we have to just jump in there because. Theyre waiting for a minister is talking now lets listen to what he has to say it dominates our mutual the military action the military measures by iran would have taken place. As our leader said this was a slap on their face to revenge will be the expulsion of explosions from the region. Said. That United States takes any action here on view to respond accordingly and we will respond in a very harsh way but proportionately. Yes. As i told you yesterday it is up to the United States to now come to its senses and stop its adventurism in this region. Well we did not start this process of escalation day United States waged an economic war against iran the United States has to come to its senses the presence of iranian people in the streets of many cities unprecedented in the history a sea of humanity has to bring to the United States to its senses that if it wants to deal with this people it has to deal with these people based on respect not based on threat and not based on sanctions. In. Europe can play a useful role by informing the United States of the serious error in their analysis that they should stop listening to clowns that they should base their policy based on realities and not some evolutions of some clowns who have ambitions of threat. How much work outs got them back to care. When again its an ignorance are combined it becomes a very dangerous stomper has people around him who are have combined both. Ignorance and arrogance and the result has been these mistakes. And we hope that the lesson that has been given to them by the randian nation. We are indebted to the people they came up. To with their presence they showed that the slow money. Was a unifying a Unifying Force in our people and this free unified force should show it to the americans or they have been mistaken so far yet. There are reports that no americans are going to live there about iraq is it because i do not have the statistics the military authorities with are now and this is the stakes what is clear is that we have attacked. And america can military base in the region from which. Attack on you no celeb money took place. This was legitimated target from the point of the national law this is a legitimate right of selfdefense against a terrorist act a terrorist a military act we did our legitimate action we took our legitimate measures. We have given them our message just through. So youre watching live pictures there of the Iranian Foreign minister Mohammad Zarif there talking to the assembled press after a Cabinet Meeting in the iranian capital tehran he said its up to the u. S. To stop its adventurism in the area he said iran didnt start this latest escalation he said that the people the iranian people have shown that qassam so the money was a Unifying Force thats been in but assad begun joins us from the iranian capital said so jihad zarif talking there but lets talk about the tweet he sent out earlier after the strike saying in fact was a rather diplomatic response wasnt it saying that this was a single proportionate response underpinned by the u. N. Charter and that this response is now concluded so do you think as far as the iranians are concerned thats it. Yes as long as the United States dont retaliate and thats what the company thats what divides the reef thats where rouhani president rouhani are all same but as far as theyre concerned this is over theyve drawn a line in the sand this saying to the United States ok you killed our general we struck your bases lets you know lets both save face and its actually giving President Donald Trump a way act but if the United States retaliate then the revolutionary guard have warned countries in the region the host United States bases that if attack is launched against iran from those bases those countries become a target theyve also warned israel they say that they do not see a difference between israel and the United States as a threat of bringing israel into the conflict but although the United States has overwhelming firepower we cant forget that iran has the ability to change the face of the middle east they have militias they have proxies in the region in iraq in yemen the hutu rebels in yemen in syria and hizbullah in lebanon ball that divides reach that if the United States retaliate iran would have to respond but proportionally that this could escalate into a full scale war if the United States takes action military action against iran or to assad beg in the iranian capital i said thank you and in another development the u. S. Federal Aviation Authority has banned u. S. Airlines from flying in the airspace above iraq iran and the gulf of amman it says theres a potential for miscalculation or mis identification lets bring in gabler zomba who joins us live now from washington d. C. So we heard earlier on from the irans Supreme Leader lets talk about President Trumps response because a rather curious tweet the president saying that all is well so what can you read into that tweet saying perhaps a pause and a possible off from here for the americans to defuse this crisis. Yeah there is certainly a pause because that tweet by President Trump was really the only statement weve gotten from anyone in high levels of the federal government and could course President Trump response to these missile attacks we have not heard from the secretary of state weve not heard directly from the secretary of defense either and trump it was rumored that he was going to address the nation late on tuesday evening that ultimately did not happen it was just this trump it was kind of peculiar trumpery as you saw in the story we aired it said it all is well and basically saying i will be making a statement tomorrow morning meeting later on wednesday morning and that is pretty much it trump is really facing a question now and a big big decision he has already said previously that if iran struck any military assets u. S. Military assets in the region the u. S. Would strike back well now iran has struck u. S. Interests in the region with these 2 bases there were some troops or at no u. S. Troops apparently were killed however now trump pesticide am i going to follow through am i going to strike back at iran again or not was this a beer anough attack by iran to warn another u. S. Response or not those are the Big Questions and we just simply dont have the answers to that yet until we hear more from trump. Later on wednesday now just i need to just mention briefly the pentagon is not confirming any sort of reports yet on how many missiles hit the bases any sort of Damage Assessment all of that is happening now we have heard some numbers from the Iraqi Government officials but so far the pentagon is keeping very quiet on this theyre assessing everything we expect to hear more on the damage to the base bases on wednesday and that will be critical i will say to see if any. Military assets from the us were damaged or hit at all that might play into any sort of american response Going Forward as you say were still waiting then the battle Damage AssessmentGoing Forward but what is interesting and significant is that both u. S. Secular state might pump a i am the defense secretary marcus said look theyre seeking a diplomatic solution and dont want to escalate this crisis so where are we now with an a diplomatic effort to try and cool this whole thing down here we have not heard a lot from many officials since these missile strikes occurred we heard from some Congress People basically as it was happening saying you know were watching this closely we hope everyone is safe but in terms of where this goes from here we havent heard from a lot of people clearly though President Trump does have some options now its just a matter of will he take those options hes going to be hearing 2 Different Things on one side is going to be hearing from people saying this is the chance to deescalate the situation now is the opportunity to take this off ramp to maybe pursue some sort of diplomatic avenues on the other side hes going to hear from hawks people that consider this an opportunity to strike back at iran one of those people is going to be republican senator Lindsey Graham he spoke late tuesday evening and this is what he had to say listen carefully the missiles were launched from iran at targets inside of iraq housing u. S. Military personnel the president has all the Authority Needs under article 2 the respond and hiring spawns is yet to be determined but he has that authority to respond it was an act of war by regime for the last 40 years spent a cancer in the middle east when they say they want to destroy israel theyre not kidding theyre the largest state sponsor of terrorism. So thats some of the advice trump is getting from very close allies and its now up to the president to decide where this goes from here deborah is on the line for us there from washington d. C. Thank you lets cross over now to the iraqi capital baghdad and joins so manifold in so many so we havent heard any official response yet from the Iraqi Government but how will officials in baghdad where you are be assessing their reign in the response do you think. Well so far weve only had a very factual statement from the joint Operations Command saying that there were in total 22. 00 missiles that were fired by iran in direction of 2 bases where u. S. Personnel are stationed 17 of those rockets hit either last airbase in western Anbar Province and the remaining 5 hits near an air base not actually striking it but hitting in the surrounding fields now we understand those 17 rockets that were fired and i said all fell inside the Coalition Headquarters but as we mentioned before the u. S. Is still assessing the material damage and there are no reports of u. S. Casualties and the statement also said from the joint Operations Command there were no iraqi forces harmed in this latest attack now of course this is a very significant event here because we havent really previously had iran firing such missiles onto iraqi territory we did have over a dozen different rocket attacks of the past 2 months targeting such bases but these rocket attacks were mostly attributed to groups such as hezbollah brigades which form part of the iranian backed Popular Mobilization forces here in iraq and of course there has been a lot of concern that these groups were acting on the behest of to iran now what remains to be seen is how the Iraqi Government will react will they condemn these attacks which are also a violation of iraqi sovereignty just like the u. S. Strike that killed soleimani and i will mark the hundreds and we have seen a very strong condemnation of those u. S. Strikes coming out of the government followed by calls by parliament for the withdrawal of foreign troops from iraq so of course there will be some pressure on the Iraqi Government to mount a proportional response perhaps also condom condemning these attacks perhaps also taking measures to. To reign in some of the allies of iran here inside iraq but all that remains to be seen and perhaps many feel that this is highly unlikely because throughout their response to the latest crisis we have seen the Iraqi Government steer closer to iran and basically basically take the position off tehran in its statements or to some other fault in there from baghdad someone to thank you. Well the