And if there is to be a u. S. Response to this, what will it be . Specially crucial since tonight iran warned if the u. S. Counterstrikes now, they say they will destroy the city of dubai in the uae, always full of westerners, and the seaside city of haifa in northern israel. So that got the attention of a lot of people. Iran in a statement said tonight it does not seek escalation of war but will defend itself against any further act of aggression. Did the iranians kill americans tonight . There were initial reports that they did, but at air time the ascied press is telling us the latest assessment from the u. S. Central command appears to be no immediate reports of american casualties. A lot of senior civilian and military commanders, as you might imagine, rushed over to the white house tonight. Weve been told we should not expect anything from there for the remainder of the evening. There are no plans for the pentagon to comment tonight on camera or on the record. Earlier today, the president was asked about this conflict escalating. Is the u. S. Prepared for an iranian atta . Were prepared. Were totally prepared, and like wide were prepared to attack if we have to as retribution. Then there came this. A little over an hour ago tonight, the president sent this out over twitter, and we quote. All is well. Missiles launched from iran at who military bases located in iraq. Assessment of casualties and damages taking place now. So far so good. We have the most powerful and well equipped military anywhere in the world by far. Ill be making a statement tomorrow morning. With all of that in mind, lets get to our leadoff discussion in a moment. But first with us for the very latest, richard engel, our nbc news chief foreign correspondent, who is in erbil, iraq, for us in the north and ali arouzi, our Tehran Bureau chief, is with us from tehran, iran, the capital city. Ali, beginning with you, are we, at this hour and i understand we have quite a sizeable satellite delay between us and yo are weeft to hope that the twitter correspondence of the two leaders will hold into tonight, into tomorrow, and maybe decide future policy Going Forward . Reporter well, brian, that is the big question here. Iran has taken full responsibility for the attacks launched into those Iraqi Air Bases Housing u. S. Personnel. It came from irans irgc, not their proxies. It was a clear message from iran, but it seems to have been somewhat calibrated not to cause mass casualties. Iran are making unsubstantiated claims that it has claimed american lives, but those are totally unverified reports. It doesnt seem that they wanted to launch an attack that would invite an allout reprisal from the United States. They are saying this was revenge for Qassem Soleimanis death, but they are also saying right now that if the United States does not respond to these attacks from iran, they will not attack any further. Iran is saying, the ball is in the court of the United States. But they have also warned that comes with a caveat. They say if the United States does decide to attack iran for these missile strikes, then they will attack, as you mentioned, the city of dubai because they say there are u. S. Planes that could take off from there. They have threatened to attack the city of haifa because they see israel as complicit in anything america does that regards iran. A Senior Adviser to the iranian president rouhani has just said that if america doesnt attack, this may be over. But if america does attack iran, they will unleash war in this entire region. And they have said it time and time again, brian, that they have proxies spread across this entire place that are close to u. S. Assets, and if this was going to escalate, those would all be targets. We are hearing reports through Iranian State media that iranianbacked militias are ready for any orders from tehran if this was going to escalate. Hezbollah in lebanon have said that they are ready to attack israel if there is any reprisal from the United States. But the main message coming from iran right now is if we dont get attacked, they are ready to deescalate. Irans foreign minister, javad zarif, said that this was a proportional attack from what happened to the killing of qassem soleimani. They dont want this to escalate further. So the question is right now what is President Trump going to do in response to this, and have there actually been any american casualties. That is what will determine how we go forward. There are also some extraordinary reports coming out of iran that irans supreme leader, ayatollah khamenei, was there in the control room coordinating these attacks. That was reported by state media here. The man that replaced qassem soleimani, general ghaani, had stepped out of the shadows, being very forceful. He made a statement through state tv saying that we have heard the cries of the americans. We have crushed their burns. Its now time to leave this region. So once this fog clears, well see what happens next, brian. Ali arouzi in tehran for us tonight, thank you. And over to richard engel. As day breaks on a new day in that region in erbil, richard, i was listening to you live earlier say that you were you heard a sound, some noises in the night, got in a vehicle to go around the area, looked around, and you were rather surprised to learn that this had been on the target list that erbil was among the facilities hit. Reporter yes, brian. I can tell you were feeling quite a bit better now that the sun is rising here. Things seem to be a little bit calmer, not just in erbil but across the region than they were a few hours ago when it looked like we were heading down a very, very dangerous path. By no means are we out of this yet. We are Still Standing on the edge of a very slippery slope that could still lead to an open war across the region. But a few hours ago, there were these initial reports that iran had responded. We heard some explosions here. Initially you could probably see that its kiquite windy. We werent even sure they were explosions. We went driving around to see if we could see any damage. There were some reports that it may have been a car bomb, but couldnt find any. So apparently there was an attack here. The u. S. Military says there was two Ballistic Missiles fired, but it was not a devastating attack. The city of erbil is still here, and i think what ali said is very important, that iran apparently calibrated its attack to send a message to its own population that it stands strong. It is willing to face up to to stand up to the United States, stand up to the Strongest Military in the world, stand up to President Trump despite threats that President Trump would basically wipe out iranian cultural sites, but not go so far as to trigger a direct military confrontation that iran would certainly lose. So we will see what happens, but if iran has succeeded in threading this needle, succeeded in doing a tit for tat attack in which the u. S. Attacked an Iranian Military target, general qassem soleimani, and iran responded by attacking military targets here in this country, and it allows both sides to have an offramp, then we are looking at a new day. But this is this is an erratic administration. You have a divided regime in iran in which hardliners are in the ascendancy. So we are not out of the woods yet, but i can tell you things are looking better now than they were four hours ago. Okay, my friend. As a sunny and windy wednesday dawns in that part of the world after a sportier than usual tuesday night, we hope you can get some rest amid your reporting on this new day. Richard engel in erbil in Northern Iraq for us. We mentioned our leadoff discussion. Lets bin now with retired fourstar u. S. Army general barry mccaffrey, a decorated combat veteran of vietnam, former battlefield commander notably in the persian gulf. Phil rucker, pulitzer prizewinning White House Bureau chief for the Washington Post. Brett mcgurk, the former special president ial envoy for the Global Coalition to defeat isis. And our Foreign Affairs analyst here in new york, our own ayman mohyeldin, who has reported extensively of course from that region. And at the department of defense, Courtney Kube, nbc news correspondent covering National Security in the pentagon. And, courtney, we need to start with you and go over a few things. First and foremost, something people are picking up on their phones in just the time we came on before the air. This is a report out of tehran that a ukrainian commercial airliner has gone down with 180 souls onboard. Normally wed be tempted to say theres no relation, but coming off a night where iranian air defenses have been on a hairtrigger, as we say, it gets your attention. Do you have anything to add to this story . Reporter no. I mean i can totally understand, and i understand that theres probably going to be a lot of conspiracy theorists out there, but at this point were not getting any indication that these two things are linked, brian. Okay. Now to our story in chief, and that is the volley of Ballistic Missiles launched by iran. Courtney, lets talk about early warning, and lets just assume we have automatic and live eyes on the entire country, if not the known missile launching sites. A lot of their Ballistic Missiles are on mobile launchers. They drive upwards of 100 miles away from their bases. So lets presume we had advance warning. What do we do with that, and how long in advance do you think we knew that this was some sort of volley was coming . Reporter so there were indications that something was brewing all day today and even last night. But it unfolded in a really unusual way. So it started with late this afternoon eastern time, some reports that the u. S. Military in baghdad was under attack from rockets or some kind of incoming, and that camp taji, which is just north of baghdad, was also taking rocket fire. Those reports exploded on social media. People in the press corps, everyone was trying to figure out what was going on. It turns out that none of them were true. So people here and people u. S. Military here and u. S. Military in iraq, they have absolutely been on the edge of their seats today. Tensions are very high. It was clear that they were expecting something. Whats n unclear is exactly how did it all unfold that suddenly there were these two reports, very serious and widespread reports of attacks that turned out to be completely untrue. They were taken so seriously that the u. S. Military, they were in bunkers in both locations and they were hunkered down. But they ended up to be false. And then literally within a very short time period after that, the strikes started on al asad. So it seems that this is all coordinated or there was some kind of coordinated campaign here, effort here to deflect. That being said, the u. S. Military, as you said, brian, they have eyes on iran. They know they have a good warning sense when they might be preparing to launch any kind of a Ballistic Missile. These were most likely shortrange Ballistic Missiles, which theyve shown the capability to launch even beyond al asad in western iraq from iran. Theyve taken some shortrange Ballistic Missile strikes into syria, and theyve shown that their capabilities have actually improved in the last several years. They took pretty specific precision strikes against isis in syria on two separate occasions that we know about, one in 2017, one in 2018. So the fact that they would be able to take relatively precise strikes into iraq at al asad and up in erbil shouldnt be surprising. The u. S. Would probably have a sense that they me may have a sense many of these are liquid propellants, but they may have a sense theyre doing it sometime in advance. From the time theyve launched until theyve landed in some place like aasad, they would have minutes, depending how f inside of iran they launched, anywhere upwards of ten minutes before they would start impacting to have the warning for the troops there. Real quick, can you explain to the folks watching what bda is, and why it is both under way tonight as the sun comes up over there and incredibly crucial to the u. S. Reporter yes. So its the Battle Damage assessment. It happens anytime theres some kind of attack or some kind of kinetic event with the u. S. Military. In this case, because this all happened at night, it makes it a little more difficult to see the full extent of what happened here. Now that the sun is coming up, they should be getting a better sense of what locations were struck. They have a sense of somewhere around 15 total missiles that were fired, but exactly what they struck, theyre not talking about any kind of casualty numbers. Were not hearing anyeports of u. S. Casualties specifically, but once the sun comes up and they get a little bit more time between the actual attack and they may Start Talking a little bit more about exactly any kind of injuries, what specific locations, so if any buildings were hit. Then we might start getting a better sense, hopefully into wednesday, of whether they think these targets were actually what they targeted or whether it was maybe they were the missiles werent as accurate as they tried to, and they were just lobbing them into the area. Courtney kube at the pentagon for us. Phil rucker, lets talk about your beat. What was seen . What went on tonight at the white house . Why did reporters briefly have a flurry that we might get a statement to the nation from the president tonight . We later got a waveoff on that. Hell speak at some point tomorrow morning. Who was seen coming and going, et cetera . Yeah, brian. So as you could imagine, very soon after these missile attacks, the president s relatively slimmed down war cabinet assembled at the white house with him to go over what was happening. That included defense secretary esper, the secretary of state mike pompeo, who is having outsized influence in the iran strategy in recent days. Vice president pence was there and others. They were twrrying to assess th damage. There was an effort according to my reporting with my colleagues, Ashley Parker and josh dawsey, to convince the president , to explain to the president that things were not spiraling out of control that they might have seen if you were watching television news, but that there were not mass casualties. In fact, the president was very interested in discovering whether there were any casualties at all. And there was an effort to get him to sort of take his time, to be judicious, to be measured in how he responded to this. There were reports early on in the evening because white house officials were letting out word that they were preparing for a possible president ial address to the nation that would have occurred sometime tonight. Bu tn stephanie grisham, the White House Press secretary, announced that there would in fact not be an address to the nation. Trump then announced that he plans to be addressing the nation tomorrow, and thats when well find out what his response will be like. But its important to note the change in the president s rhetoric. Over the last few days, hes been warning on twitter that he would respond without hesitation to iran, that he would use the best, the most beautiful new military equipment. Those are his words. And that he would be responding in a disproportionate matter to iran. But he did not do so in the immediate aftermath tonight. In fact, he seems to be trying to buy some time to get the full assessment as courtney was alluding to and make a more reasoned decision in the morning. Yeah. A marked change to the president s rhetoric. A lot of folks read that two and three times over when it came out. Brett mcgurk, im tempted to widen out the focus in our conversation with you and ask you what these past five days must have been like given your recent lifes work. Our fight against isis is over. Were repositioning to defend ourselves against iran. The fight against isis used to link us with iran. Iraq is our ally. As we said here last night, under the you break it, you buy it policy, we not only broke it, we bought it, and weve been there throughout. And then you add in tonight, you add in a possible u. S. Response. Where does this leave us tonight . Well, brian, tonight what is extraordinary is it seems like a consensus emerging we kind of dodged a bullet. We dodged a Ballistic Missile. And everybody is taking a deep breath. Its just it just speaks to how extraordinary this moment is that iran launched almost a dozen Ballistic Missiles at americans housed in iraqi bases in iraq and that we might actually see this as a moment to pause and take a deep breath. That just shows just how critical this moment had become. Just kind of going back, rewinding the tape the last 96 hours or so, my first reaction to the soleimani strike, as someone who served a long time in iraq and have colleagues who have been killed by iranianbacked militias, was just a kind of gut sense of justice. But then immediately how do you respond to this . And what has been troubling was the somewhat inept, haphazard response from the administration with shifting explanations. The iraqis moving very rapidly perhaps to kick us out of the country, which would be a total disaster. We came back to iraq in 2014 in a very careful way, a very limited investment. Were not fighting. Were not taking casualties. Were not spending much money. Brian, we built a big coalition. We have nato. We have almost 20 other western allies with us in iraq. And were we to get kicked out of the country, the vacuum would just open up entirely to these iranianbacked groups. Isis would have a vacuum to resurge. And as we left and all of our western partners left, you would see russia fill that vacuum immediately. That would be