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Iran and US trade strikes ending lull in fighting · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A brief lull in fighting in the Middle East has
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: come to an end as the US military intercepted what
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: it called a surprise attack on its forces by Iran.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: That's the claim from US Central Command. It's the first
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: reported Iranian attack since President Trump ordered a halt to
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: US strikes over the weekend. Before that, there'd been nearly
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: two weeks of nightly strikes by the US on Iran
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  Speaker 1: and repeated missile and drone strikes by Iran targeting Washington's
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: allies in the region. At the same time, the US
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: said American and Saudi Arabian forces launched joint strikes on
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: militant groups in Iraq who were aligned with Iran. Twenty
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  Speaker 1: are reported to being killed. Read confirming its involvement, with
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  Speaker 1: the Defense Ministry saying it hit targets that belong to militias,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: which it says are linked to attacks on its oil facilities.
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  Speaker 1: To remind you, on Monday, President Trump had a busy day,
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  Speaker 1: but he met with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin nettan Yahoo,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: seeking to patch up public disagreements over the war with Iran.
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  Speaker 1: These were talks held at the White House. It was
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  Speaker 1: their first meeting since their military forces jointly attacked Iran
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  Speaker 1: in late February. If you see Arabert correspondent selling the
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  Speaker 1: bill is in Cairo. CBS News correspondent Jared Hill is
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  Speaker 1: in New York. Jared started by giving us the latest
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  Speaker 1: update from Saint Com.
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  Speaker 2: Sant Com is saying that it was pretty evident that
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: these were directly being the Mussile strikes were directly targeted
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  Speaker 2: toward the US troops in Jordan. They were essentially saying
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  Speaker 2: they could have shot at anywhere else, but they chose
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  Speaker 2: this location, also the same space where three American service
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  Speaker 2: members were killed in the past couple of weeks, and
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  Speaker 2: so they believe this to be an attempt by the
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Iranians to directly target American troops in American forces. Something
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  Speaker 2: also interesting here is that there was a headline out
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  Speaker 2: of Routers regarding essentially a warning of sorts being put
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  Speaker 2: up by Sentcom to soldiers at the base there in Jordan,
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  Speaker 2: as well as some others in the area, saying essentially
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  Speaker 2: that videos that they might be taking of or around
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  Speaker 2: the base could be utilized by the Iranians to try
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  Speaker 2: and pinpoint locations if they were working toward attacking them.
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  Speaker 2: There as well. So again we're seeing this escalation not
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  Speaker 2: only in the fighting itself, but also in some of
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  Speaker 2: the concern for the life and safety of American troops
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  Speaker 2: in the region.
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  Speaker 1: Jared, thanks for that. So, Sally, we had this news
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  Speaker 1: that Saudi Arabia in the US have carried out joint
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  Speaker 1: strikes against around back militias in Iraq. How significant is
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: that moment for the Saudis to now be involved in
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  Speaker 1: this kind of action.
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  Speaker 3: That's pretty significant because the Saudis are now hitting back
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  Speaker 3: at Iran affiliated militias. They said that this comes in
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  Speaker 3: response to earlier air strikes that targeted their oil facilities
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  Speaker 3: in the east part of the Kingdom, and they accused
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  Speaker 3: Iran affiliated militias based in Iraq of launching these attacks.
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  Speaker 3: The Saudi said that they never start aggression, but they
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  Speaker 3: are acting according to the right to self defense. And
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  Speaker 3: this raises the question of whether or not we'll see
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  Speaker 3: more involvement of the Saudi forces in the fight against
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  Speaker 3: Iran and its proxies in the region. And over the years,
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  Speaker 3: I've seen the rising influence of the popular mobilization forces,
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  Speaker 3: and many of these forces are backed by Tahran. They
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  Speaker 3: have played a key part in the fight against the
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  Speaker 3: so called Islamic State around ten years ago or so,
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  Speaker 3: and they have gained a lot of influence militarily and
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  Speaker 3: economically in Iraq. This is why they are a key
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  Speaker 3: part of this fight, and that has pushed another shiaklyric
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  Speaker 3: is not aligned with Iran, like Moktada Sudari for example,
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  Speaker 3: in Iraq, to say that this kind of behavior might
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  Speaker 3: drag the country into war, and he called upon the
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  Speaker 3: government to enforce law and order and try to restrain
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  Speaker 3: these militious because Iraq doesn't want to find itself as
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  Speaker 3: part of the ongoing fight against Iran.
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  Speaker 1: So sadly, the Popular Mobilization Forces, this paramilitary group that
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  Speaker 1: you speak of, they have been saying that at least
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  Speaker 1: twenty of their members were killed in these strikes, which
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  Speaker 1: is quite a high number. What has the government said
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  Speaker 1: about this? The Iraqi government.
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  Speaker 3: So far, we haven't had a clear reaction from the
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  Speaker 3: Iraqi government. We know meetings are underway to discuss the
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  Speaker 3: latest developments. But the Popular Mobilization Force, which as I said,
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  Speaker 3: is an umbrella group that includes a number of Iran
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  Speaker 3: bak Chia militious they said that this toll is still
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  Speaker 3: initial and the numbers might rise in the coming few hours.
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  Speaker 3: Twenty have been killed and another thirty injured. We don't
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  Speaker 3: know if this figure is going to change in the
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  Speaker 3: next few hours. But again, this has always been a
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  Speaker 3: key issue the behavior of the militants in Iraq because
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  Speaker 3: they are well armed and the government has been trying
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  Speaker 3: to control the way they behave, but so far it
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: hasn't been a success and they haven't handed over their
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: weapons to the government yet. Despite the continuing US pressure
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  Speaker 3: on the Iraqi government to put all the weapons in
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  Speaker 3: the hands of the militias under government control.