As U.S. escalates attacks, Iran hits American diplomatic targets in Middle East

Geoff Bennett:

Welcome to the "News Hour" on this day four of the American-Israeli war with Iran.

And while U.S. and Israeli jets continue their punishing attacks inside Iran, the Islamic Republic has widened its targets throughout the Arab states of the Gulf and against Israel.

Amna Nawaz:

American diplomatic targets in the Gulf were hit overnight, and almost all the civilian airspace throughout the region remains closed.

The U.S. State Department, after telling hundreds of thousands of Americans to leave of their own accord and on their own, reversed course today and said the U.S. is working to provide military and charter flights to evacuate Americans wishing to leave.

All the while, the death toll from the American-Israeli bombardment mounted inside Iran.

Nick Schifrin again begins our coverage.

Nick Schifrin:

In Tehran, the iconic Freedom Square engulfed in war. Rescue workers responded to an apparent Israeli airstrike that left cars charred and pedestrians stunned. And jets targeted what remains of Iran's leadership. This building housing a regime advisory council was flattened.

Just to the south in Qom, an Israeli official confirms it targeted a meeting of senior clerics choosing the next supreme leader. Iranian state media claim those clerics are all safe. But, tonight, Israel says it also struck what it called a -- quote -- "secret nuclear headquarters," where Israel says Iran had shifted its nuclear infrastructure after it had been struck by the United States last summer.

Across the capital, explosions sparked defiance.

Sayed Abbas Hosseini, Tehran Resident (through interpreter):

The Americans think they can force us to surrender with missiles and so on, but they can't do such wrong things. We will certainly defeat them.

Nick Schifrin:

And pain.

Woman (through interpreter):

They killed all of my people. They dropped bombs. They hit us again. They killed people's children.

Nick Schifrin:

Many children today were laid to rest, one with their backpack still on. Iran says a strike killed more than 100 mostly schoolchildren. The U.S. says it's investigating.

But the war is spreading. Israel pounded Beirut, targeting the senior leadership of Iranian ally Hezbollah. Commercial airplanes are still taking off, even though one flew into the smoky sky. Israel also deployed troops into Southern Lebanon IN what an IDF official said was not deep, but spread widely. They're responding to Hezbollah rockets and a warning today of -- quote -- "all-out war."

Today, thousands of Lebanese families filled roads away from the Israeli border fleeing a war they didn't sign up for. But Iran is resisting this Israeli-American war by targeting American soil in the region. Today, U.S. officials set an Iranian drone struck the parking lot next to the Dubai consulate's main building. Nobody was injured.

But this Iranian drone attack follows another one overnight on the embassy in Riyadh and an attack on Sunday on the embassy in Kuwait.

Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of State: Our embassies and our diplomatic facilities are under direct attack from a terroristic regime.

Nick Schifrin:

Today on Capitol Hill, Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged all Americans across the region to leave as quickly as possible.

Marco Rubio:

We have identified and continue to identify charter flights, military flight options and expanded commercial flight options, meaning working with the airlines to send bigger airplanes with more seats.

Nick Schifrin:

Last night, the State Department told Americans across 14 countries to evacuate immediately. A U.S. official says that includes more than a million people; 9,000 Americans have managed to leave the region alongside Europeans relieved to be back home.

Alexander Goga, Passenger Returning From Dubai:

You hear the bombings or them stopping the bombing, and, I mean, it's really, really strange. I mean, it's not a nice situation and environment to be in at all.

Marco Rubio:

The challenge we are facing is airspace closures. If a country closes their airport -- for example, in some cases, the airports have been hit. So the airport in Kuwait was hit. So if an airport's been attacked or the airspace is closed, then we can have the planes lined up to go, but we can't get them to land because we don't have the permissions to land there.

Janice Jacobs, Former U.S. Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs: If it's not unprecedented, it is unusual in its scope.

Nick Schifrin:

Ambassador Janice Jacobs had a more-than-30-year career in the State Department and was President Obama's most senior State Department official in charge of helping Americans overseas.

Janice Jacobs:

I think the first advice was to tell people to shelter in place. Now we're telling them to leave. It is a challenge, no question about it, because airports are closed, airspace is closed.

Question:

Why wasn't there an evacuation plan and will you send planes to get people out?

President Donald Trump:

Well, because it happened all very quickly. We thought and I thought maybe more so than most -- I could ask Marco -- but I thought we were going to have a situation where we were going to be attacked.

Nick Schifrin:

Today, President Trump tied the evacuations to his argument that he had no choice when to start the war.

President Donald Trump:

You see, We Were having negotiations with these lunatics. And it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack. If we didn't do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that.

Nick Schifrin:

The war has challenged the U.S.' ability to deploy enough missiles to intercept Iranian drones and missiles across a dozen countries and enough munitions to wage a war the president said was planned to last about a month.

But U.S. officials say the war has entered a new phase and they can now use weapons that are more plentiful, leading to President Trump last night to write: "We have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons. Wars can be fought forever and very successfully using just these supplies."

That is a stunning reversal to first-term Donald Trump.

President Donald Trump:

I campaigned in ending the endless wars. We're all over the world fighting wars. Half the places, nobody even knows what they're doing over there. But really the plan is to get out of endless wars, to bring our soldiers back home, to not be policing agents all over the world. We will keep America out of foolish, stupid, ridiculous foreign wars.

Nick Schifrin:

But the U.S. is warning tonight this foreign war will last as long as necessary.