Speaker 1: Hello, everybody. It's about twelve to fifteen pm here on
Speaker 1: the East coast, and we have some very unfortunate breaking news,
Speaker 1: but still major nonetheless that we can go ahead and
Speaker 1: share it with all of you. US Central Command has
Speaker 1: now announced on January twenty eight, three US service members
Speaker 1: were killed and twenty five injured from a one way
Speaker 1: attack UAS that's referred to as an attack drone that
Speaker 1: impacted at a base in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border.
Speaker 1: As a matter of respect for the families, in accords
Speaker 1: with DoD policies, the identities of the service members being
Speaker 1: withheld here now for the next twenty four hours until
Speaker 1: their next of kin have gone ahead and be identified.
Speaker 1: President Biden also issued a major statement from the White
Speaker 1: House that I can hear for all of you. They
Speaker 1: say quote today, America's heart is heavy. Last night, three
Speaker 1: US service members were killed many wounded during an unmanned
Speaker 1: aerial drone attack on our forces stationed in northeast Jordan
Speaker 1: near the Syrian border. While we are still gathering the
Speaker 1: facts of this attack, we know it was carried out
Speaker 1: by quote a radical Iran backed militant group operating in
Speaker 1: Syria and Iraq. Jill and I joined the families and
Speaker 1: friends of our following the Americans across the country and
Speaker 1: grieving the loss. These service members embodied the very best
Speaker 1: of our nation, unwavering in their bravery. So the top line,
Speaker 1: obviously is that three unfortunate US service members were killed
Speaker 1: in this attack. Initially, they're not assigning blame to any
Speaker 1: specific group, but they are claiming it is quote a
Speaker 1: radical Iranian fact militant group. Interestingly, they are saying they're
Speaker 1: operating in Syria and Iraq, raising the question of this
Speaker 1: there's a multi pronged attack, whether it was a single
Speaker 1: group on one side of the border, whether it was
Speaker 1: a cross border type of operation. The top line. Also,
Speaker 1: in terms of their response, they said that they reserved
Speaker 1: the right to respond, quote, we will hold all those
Speaker 1: responsible to account at a time and in a manner
Speaker 1: of our choosing, raising questions about what exactly that is
Speaker 1: going to mean. So in terms of some little bit
Speaker 1: more of the detail, it's very very very early that
Speaker 1: this is all happening right now. I'm going to go
Speaker 1: ahead and share the BBC News here. They say that
Speaker 1: in general, in terms of quoting, they note a very
Speaker 1: interesting statistic They say Jordan has housed US military basis
Speaker 1: for some time, and it is estimated there are about
Speaker 1: three thousand American troops who are typically stationed there, And
Speaker 1: of course they also highlight that earlier this month, two
Speaker 1: new US Navy Seals are presumed dead by the US
Speaker 1: military after they were missing during an operation off the
Speaker 1: coast of Somalia. But these are the first American service
Speaker 1: members actually killed on the ground in an attack like
Speaker 1: this since the war between Israel and Gaza began more
Speaker 1: than one hundred days ago. This is obviously going to
Speaker 1: be a major piece of escalation in terms of what
Speaker 1: the US response will look like With the Iranian groups.
Speaker 1: They're already they're ascribing blame to Iranian groups. So we
Speaker 1: don't know yet whether this was directed by Tehran or
Speaker 1: not what the US intelligence agencies and all of that
Speaker 1: are saying. But nonetheless, I think we're going to be
Speaker 1: hearing about this for quite some time, you know, in
Speaker 1: the future. It's a very dangerous, dangerous moment. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's a surprise this happened in Jordan. It was
Speaker 1: almost certainly a message because Jordan is very close, you know,
Speaker 1: to Israel, and it's possible that if some sort of
Speaker 1: justification or any of that were to come out, This
Speaker 1: is purely speculation of my part. I want to be
Speaker 1: clear that, you know, perhaps they would claim that these
Speaker 1: military assets were assisting with the Israeli military campaign. I
Speaker 1: could see something like that as some sort of quote
Speaker 1: unquote justification. Nonetheless, you know, escalation now between Tehran and
Speaker 1: Washington is going to go dramatically sky high, and it
Speaker 1: raises questions as well as to you know, what the
Speaker 1: overall US military posture is. We don't forget we have
Speaker 1: tens of thousands of American troops all across this region. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: it was basically a matter of time since this happened.
Speaker 1: We've had so many attacks on US troops and bases
Speaker 1: in Iraq and in Syria. Not to mention, the US Navy,
Speaker 1: which is currently in a tit for tat with the
Speaker 1: Hoofy rebels that you know, kept saying it only takes one,
Speaker 1: it only takes one for a US service member, And
Speaker 1: in this case, I mean, this is clearly a very
Speaker 1: directed attack because you have multiple more than a dozen
Speaker 1: US service members who are also injured on top of
Speaker 1: the three that were killed in this drone attack, So
Speaker 1: there's going to be a lot of questions in the
Speaker 1: coming days and in the hours. Obviously, Crystal and I
Speaker 1: will have a show for everybody tomorrow. We're going to
Speaker 1: break down everything that we know. Very likely we could
Speaker 1: see military action actually happen as soon as tonight. It's
Speaker 1: very possible. We will be monitoring that. We'll bring everybody
Speaker 1: the breaking news. There are also definitely going to be
Speaker 1: major calls from US lawmakers about escalating the situation, possibly
Speaker 1: calling for war with Iran. So it's a dangerous moment
Speaker 1: here for the world and all of it. All eyes
Speaker 1: really are going to be all this. We'll be monitoring
Speaker 1: the situation for the remainder of the day and we'll
Speaker 1: bring everybody updates tomorrow. I just want to say thank
Speaker 1: you again to our premium members which enable breaking news
Speaker 1: segments and things like this, and thank you to our
Speaker 1: production team as well, which always able to help breaking
Speaker 1: moments things like this to be able to bring all
Speaker 1: of our audience the news, and we appreciate you all
Speaker 1: very much. Into all of our troops out there, I
Speaker 1: hope you guys stay safe and I pray that this
Speaker 1: does not escalate any further. Than this, but that is
Speaker 1: all that we can really say at this moment. I'll
Speaker 1: see you guys later