The United States unleashed a barrage of cruise missiles and precision guided bombs inside syria for the first time. Were talking 200 pieces of precision ordnance. Now, part of it was an attack against isis targets. But in a development that surprised a lot of people, Central Command revealed that a separate set of air strikes were aimed at eliminating an imminent threat to the u. S. Homeland. A new al qaeda offshoot known as the Khorasan Group was apparently plotting an attack against the u. S. Homeland. Now, the strikes against khorasan were unilateral, only the United States was involved but the strikes against isis were carried out by a coalition. Five arab allies joined the United States attacking by air and by sea. There you see them. Jordan, saudi arabia, bahrain, qatar. The United Arab Emirates. Sunni governments in each of these nations taking action against sunni militants inside syria. Thats a very big development. President obama praised this operation just a short time ago. We are joined in this action by our friends and partners saudi arabia, the United Arab Emirates, jordan, bahrain, and qatar. Americas proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with these nations on behalf of our common security. The strength of this coalition makes it clear to the world that this is not americas fight alone. Above all, the people and governments of the middle east are rejecting isil and standing up for the peace and security that the people of the region and the world deserve. Not americas fight alone. A key phrase you will hear from u. S. Officials all day. Were covering all angles of this story with our team of correspondents and analyst. Chief National Security correspondent jim sciutto plus our terrorism analyst paul cruickshank, National Security analyst Juliette Kayyem and our military analyst Lieutenant ColonelRick Francona all standing by. We are awaiting a press conference from the pentagon. Well bring it to you the minute happens. In the meantime, evan, i would like to begin with you. The news of this imminent threat, this surprising news about this group khorasan with a threat to the u. S. Homeland, really just learning about it overnight. The pentagon suggested it thinks it hit the targets it was shooting at of this al qaeda offshoot. Heres what the Pentagon Press spokesman admiral john kirby told chris cuomo earlier today. Early indications are we hit what we were aiming at and we greatly disrupt had had groups ability to continue the plot and planning they were doing for attacks either in europe or on the homeland. Can you confirm this report there were five primary targets, individuals, and that you got them . No, i cant actually at this point. But clearly, you know, one of the things that we were trying to thetodo disrupt their ability was to go after their leadership and, again, well know more late today. Lets get more from the pentagon right now about the attacks on khorasan and isis. Thats admiral john kirby. Lets listen to him. The president s comprehensive strategy to degrade and ultimately destroy isil and to protect the United States and its partners. Our Coalition Partners in the fight against isil which in these strikes included jordan, the United Arab Emirates, bahrain, and saudi arabia with qatar in a supporting role continue to be a critical part of our strategy. Secretary hagel appreciates their partnership and in particular the hard work and strong leadership shown by our Central Command commander general lloyd austin who gave the secretary an update on the operation throughout it. We did not coordinate with the assad regime. While the United States did inform the Syrian Regime through our u. N. Ambassador of our intent to take action, there was no coordination and no militarytomilitary communication. In terms of the Khorasan Group which is a network of seasoned al qaeda veterans, these strikes were undertake on the disrupt imminent attack plotting against the United States and western targets. These terrorists have established a safe haven in syria to plan external attacks, construct and test improvised explosive devices and recruit westerners to conduct operations. The United States took action to protect our interest and to remove their capability to act. In a minutely turn it over to the joint staffs j3 director of Operations Director bill mayville. But before i do i think its important to note a few things. First and while ill let general mayville get into the details of our assessments our initial indication is that these strikes were very successful. Second, while its not our policy to discuss future operations, i can tell you that last nights strikes were only the beginning. For this reason, think there may be some tactics, techniques and procedures that we wont be able to address to preserve options available to us in the future. Finally, well leave it up to pa our partner nations to talk about their involvement. Youve already seen statements by the jordanians and bahrain acknowledging their involvement. Ill also just note that secretary hagel is immensely proud of the u. S. Personnel who participated in and supported these missions and he deeply appreciates their service and sacrifices. With that, ill turn it over to general mayville. Good morning. Last night at the direction of the president of the United States the u. S. Military forces under the command of the United StatesCentral Command in conjunction with Coalition Partners in the region executed a series of strikes against isil and other terrorist targets in syria. Coalition strikes targeted isil Training Camps, headquarters, command and control facilities, logistical nodes, Armored Vehicles and leadership. The u. S. Military forces also executed unilateral decision strikes against the Khorasan Group an aq terrorist organization located in northwest syrian. Intelligence reports indicated the Khorasan Group was in plans to execute major attacks against western targets and potentially the u. S. Homeland. Last nights strikes were organized in three waves. The first wave began around midnight in syria, 8 30 eastern standard time. I draw your attention to the map. If i may have the first slide, please. In the first wave of strikes, the uss burke in the red sea and the uss Philippine Sea launched more than 40 tomahawk cruise missiles in eastern and northern syria. As you look at that slide, it is the target area around aleppo andh raqqa. The majority of the tomahawk strikes were against khorasan compounds, their manufacturing workshops and Training Camps. The second wave consisted of f22 raptors in their first combat role, f15 strike eagles, f16s b1 bombers and drones. They launched around 9 00 p. M. Eastern standard time against targets in northern syria. Targets included isil headquarters, Training Camps, barracks and combat vehicles. The final wave occurred shortly after midnight eastern standard time, f18s from the uss george w. Bush in the northern arabian gulf and regionally base u. S. F16s among others attacked targets in Eastern Syria to include isil Training Camps and combat vehicles, principally in that circumstance toll the far east around darzar. Coalition partners participated in both the second and thursday waves, supporting with a range of combat capabilities that began with combat air patrols to actual strikes on targets. The preponderance of Coalition Support was in the third wave. 96 of all the delivered munitions were precisionguided munitions and id like now to show you several beforeandafter pictures that highlight the effects of these munitions. If i can go to the next slide. Next slide, please. This is this first picture shows an isil finance center in raqqa. Its a before and after. On the left is the before and on the right as you look at it is the after. It was engaged tom talk cruise missiles fired from the uss Philippine Sea. Now, the intended target was the Communications Array on the roof of the building. The tomahawk cruise missiles detonated as air bursts with the effects focusing on the Communications Array and as you can see on the righthand side in the picture, the after picture, the roof Top Communications is heavily damaged while the surrounding structure remains largely intact. If i can go to the next slide, please. The second picture shows an isil commandandcontrol building in raqqa that was targeted by u. S. Air force f22s during the second wave of strikes. And this strike was the first time the f22 was used in a combat role. The flight of the f22s delivered gpsguided munitions, precision munitions targeting, again, only the right side of the building. You can see in the lefthand side the before shot and then you can see as you look at it on the righthand side the after shot. And you can see that the commandandcontrol center where it was located in the building was destroyed. If i could go to the third slide. The third and final picture a residence near the town of abu kamal along the border between syria and iraq. This was a residential area that had been used for a training site and logistic site for isil fighters. It was engaged with multiple gpsguided missiles, munitions fired from f18s launched from the uss george w. Bush. As you can see the aircraft targeted locations within the boundaries, within the fence line of the residence. Theres video here that shows exactly how that was done so give me a moment here to switch to video and ill let you look at that as well, of this same target. Again, youll note the effects of the strike were contained within the boundaries of the target area. As these pictures of the video highlight the strikes involved, multiple aircraft and cruise missiles from several countries. It was through the careful planning and coordination of u. S. Central command combined arms operations, combined air operations Center Located in the rethat these strikes were successful with minimal Collateral Damage. Last nights strikes are the beginning of a credible and sustainable Persistent Campaign to degrade and ultimately destroy isil. Our immediate tasks are to continue the degradation of isil in syria and iraq, to build and strengthen regional partners about to build a regional coalition. To assist in placing Iraqi Security forces and Peshmerga Forces on the offensive to support broader diplomaticers in the region, to implement a syrian train and equip program and to continue to work with Iraqi Security forces and ministries. With that well take your questions. Ill be moderating today. Reporter general mayville, when you talked about the mission continuing, you did not mention the Khorasan Group. Can you tell us at all if we should expect more against the Khorasan Group . Should they assume this is it . And do you have any Battle Damage assessment against them . Do you believe its possible you killed their leader . Do you have any sense of what you accomplished that youre able to give us of what you accomplished against them . As im sure you probably know, were still assessing the effects of our strikes, but weve been watching this group closely for some time and we believe the Khorasan Group is was nearing the execution phase on an attack either in europe or the homeland. We know the Khorasan Group has attempted to recruit westerners to serve as operatives or to infiltrate back into their homelands. The Khorasan Group is clearly not focused on either the assad regime or the syrian people, they are establishing routes in syria in order to advance attacks against homeland and the west. Do you have any sense of what you accomplished in those attacks last night . It would be premature to comment. We need to do more study. Reporter if its going to take you a year, general, to train the free syrian army, the 5,000 troops on the ground. Are you going to put Ground Forces in syria between now and then . And if not how is this any different from 12 years of war in iraq and afghanistan . Why is this any different from whack a mole . The short answer to your question 1 no. We will not put we have not put and we will not put Ground Forces into syria. The syrian train and equip program is as you said were in the beginning of implementation. It will be a multiyear program. It is a necessary component of the overall strategy but as you pointed out its not sufficient. Are you concerned about not putting Ground Forces in. I think were appropriately size trd the task weve been given. Reporter general were any leadership targets included on last nights hit list and what results did you get. Were any isis leadership taken out. We did not target individual leaders but we did target commandandcontrol nodes and as we look for patterns of life where leadership would routinely go. If there were there, that was an indication of a commandandcontrol today in but we didnt specifically target individuals. Reporter you talked about a credible and sustainable campaign. What does sustainable mean . How long can the American People expect these air strikes to continue and what shape will they take . Strikes like tonight or targe s targets what you saw last night were a disruption in a to isil forces that were enabling their strikes into iraq. And the way i would encourage you look at this, look at what were trying to do regionally. We are focused first in iraq because we have a partner in iraq to work with. The Iraqi Security forces, the Iraqi Government but we are striking through the depths of isils formations because we are trying to disrupt their support bases. While we enable, in iraq, their Iraqi Security forces with the help of partners to dislodge and ultimately remove isil from iraq. Could this take years . I would think even in terms of years, yes. General, id like to follow up on the Khorasan Group. You said theres evidence they represent an imminent threat to the u. S. Homeland, to europe. Is it your sense that the threat that these operatives are already outside of syria. I would want to walk away from that and not talk about intel matters here. Reporter but you did say they represent an imminent threat people want to know if that threat has been deterred because of these strikes . Let me go give us some time to assess the targets and the effects we thought we had last night before we can answer that. Reporter you talk about these strikes as hopefully having an effect on iraq. I wonder if you could assess a little bit obviously iraq end of this campaign has been going on for a while. Do you think that you have had an effect so far with those strikes and what more is going is hoped for from this way . The most important thing is to create some space for the Iraqi Security forces to reorganize and replace leadership that has that needs to be replaced. To allow them to reorganize their equipment and rearm, to get their ministry connected to this newly formed government and to allow them to go on the offensive. What we have been doing over these last couple weeks and what last Nights Campaign was about was to simply buy them some space so that they can get on the offensive. General, you talked about the overall plan allowing the iraqis, the peshmerga to go on the offensive. Wont these strikes in syria benefit assad . Youre hitting the corKhorasan Group, youre hitting isis. This benefits him, doesnt it . Right now the task at hand is countering isil, thats job one. As you mentioned last night, we not only were doing strikes in syria, we did several strikes in support of Peshmerga Forces in iraq. But the threat is countering forces to isil. Reporter but as a result of that its been fitting assad. I wouldnt characterize the results of benefitting assad. Its causing isil to address the fact that there is an air war against them. Reporter you said the syrians were informed through the u. N. This was going to happen. Weve heard a lot about their air Defense System being very robust. Is there anything with radar coming in that you can share with us . The target acquisition last night was i wont get into specifically what we know they did but i think it fair to say to assess last night was passive radar. Reporter general, can you talk about the decision to use the f35 . Well, what we were looking at was the effect