New strikes
on Iranian
backed militants
far from Israel's borders, stoki
that the United States
is on the brink of a wider war
in the Middle East.
The U.S.
hitting multiple pro-Iranian tar
in the region.
In northern Iraq, a U.S.
drone strike killed
at least five militants.
U.S.
officials saying
that it was a preemptive strike
to stop an imminent attack.
And then when you look here,
this is the Red Sea right here.
The U.S.
shot down three drones
launched by Yemen's
Iran backed Houthi militants
and responded
to four separate
missile attacks against commerci
Iran backed proxy groups
actually have now
launched 76 attacks on U.S.
and coalition
forces in Iraq and Syria since O
1776 attacks.
Let's discuss
this now
with CNN military
analyst and retired Air Force Co
Cedric Leighton.
All right, so,
Colonel, and
I'm going to go back here to the
so that we can see the 76 attack
That is an awful lot
in this tit
for tat
really seems to be escalating,
despite multiple warnings from t
How concerned are you
for the potential here
of a miscalculation
getting into a broader conflict?
Well, Brianna, it's a huge conce
because with these attacks have
you know, look at the Kirkuk are
You look at the al Assad area,
which is really over here
all of these types of attacks re
challenging US security postures
Plus,
you look at everything that has
in the Red Sea.
You have all these different pla
Plus, of course, what happened i
So every single
one of these attacks
is a signal from Iran and its pr
that they are not only watching
what the U.S.
is doing,
but it's also a signal
that they are prepared
to act against the U.S.
should they feel the need to do
The U.S.
has, of course, surged its asset
It's got to carrier
strike groups in the region.
That doesn't, though,
seem to have worked fully as a d
We still see what they're doing
What can the U.S.
do to get them to knock it off?
So one of the key
things is where they deploy thes
strike groups say
one of them is right here
in the eastern Mediterranean.
The other one is right about her
and at the entrance to the Persi
and maybe a little bit beyond th
So that's one thing
is the proximity of these groups
Plus, they also have
aircraft in places
like Qatar,
the UAE, Kuwait and even in Jord
So these aircraft
can be used to move forward.
They can also pre-position troop
in other areas.
So there are several options
that the U.S. has.
Plus,
they can use any of these strike
to actually engage these forces.
The Iranian proxies
and even the Iranian forces them
should do the president direct t
Let's talk about the objective h
Why are these Houthi rebels?
I mean, yes, they're
attacking the USS Karni,
but attacking three commercial s
What is the goal here?
So actually, when it comes to th
colony, it's
kind of unclear
as to whether or not
they actually attacked the Karni
but the colony responded
to protect to these ships.
But what they are trying to do
is they're trying to limit comme
throughout the Red Sea.
About 12% of all
global commerce
goes through this area right her
which is the Suez Canal.
And the Red Sea is line through
which all these ships pass.
So 12% of global commerce,
a lot of it is controlled
by European interests.
Some of it is controlled
also by Israeli interests.
So every time that they think
there is an Israeli
related ship going through here,
they want to interdict that ship
They want to stop it from moving
And when they do that,
they think that they're hurting
Israel's economy. That's a good
All right.
Let's talk about the ground war
that the IDF is waging against H
Now, there is this movement
towards southern Gaza.
And actually, as we look
the IDF has dropped leaflets.
You have IDF tanks that were dep
located in the Khan Yunis area.
Tell us about some of the issues
this is going to raise
when it comes to mobilizing peop
and keeping people safe.
Yes, this is a really interestin
because at the beginning of the
after the 7th of October,
everything was basically centere
Only Israeli attacks
were basically centered
in north Gaza
and in the north central part of
which is really where Gaza City
So all of this
basically about 50% of all build
have been completely destroyed
in this area,
probably more than that actually
So now what's happening
is the Israelis are moving south
along the routes right through h
But before they
this happened, before they moved
they told all these
civilians in this area
to move down south as well.
But along with the civilians, Ha
fighters have also been interspe
within these areas.
At least that's what the IDF thi
And it's pretty likely that that
that is, in fact, the case.
And now we have the Israeli forc
moving down here, coupled with a
What they are trying to do
is they're trying to go
into all of these areas and elim
as many of the Hamas
fighters as possible.
But that's also going to impact
the civilians.
Yeah, it's a very scary situatio
for them.
They feel they have nowhere to g
where they can be safe.
Colonel, great to have
you take us through this.
Thank you so much.