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U.S. Military Says, Four Killed in Refueling Plane Crash in Iraq; Sources Say, Trump Administration Underestimated War's Impact on Strait of Hormuz; FBI Says, Michigan Attack is a Targeted Act of Violence on Jewish Community. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 13, 2026 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, Americans killed. The U.S. military is confirming that four U.S. service members died after an Air Force refueling plane crashed in Iraq. 11 American troops have now been killed in this war.

Terror attacks, a man drove into a Michigan synagogue in a targeted attack against the Jewish community. Authorities are now investigating reports that the man told people he had multiple family members who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon in recent days.

And in Virginia, deadly shooting at Old Dominion University, a convicted ISIS supporter opened fire inside a classroom of ROTC students killing one person and injuring two others.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown is off today. You're in The Situation Room.

Let's start with the breaking news. At least four U.S troops have been killed after a U.S. Air Force refueling plane crashed yesterday in western Iraq. U.S. Central Command confirms a second military aircraft was also involved saying the crash was, quote, not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.

Photos taken of the plane after it landed in Israel show significant damage, including part of its tail fin missing entirely.

Here with us now, CNN National Security Correspondent Natasha Bertrand, who's working the story for us. Natasha, Secretary Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, he spoke this morning. What did he say about this and what more are we learning about this crash?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, the secretary and General Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, they didn't give a lot of new detail about the crash or what caused it other than to confirm, as CENTCOM had previously said, that this was not caused by hostile or friendly fire. But we are told here at CNN that these two planes that were impacted in this incident, they were both KC-135 tankers. One of them, as you said, it did land safely in Israel, but the other one did crash and it killed at least four of the crew members on board and two additional crew members have yet to be recovered. CENTCOM says that it is currently undergoing a search and rescue operation to find them.

Now, we should note that, you know, while Secretary Hegseth and Caine -- and General Caine said that this is not caused by hostile fire, a paramilitary group that is pro-Iranian in Iraq has taken responsibility for downing this aircraft and for hitting the other plane that ultimately did land safely.

They didn't provide evidence for this claim, but it is worth noting that, you know, these proxy militia forces in Iraq, they do have surface to air missiles, for example. And so it is possible here that more information could come out about what exactly happened. Was this actually the result of something that happened, you know, via one of these proxy groups, or was it just an accident, a mid-air collision? But they're still investigating the cause.

BLITZER: CNN also has some new reporting that the Trump administration significantly underestimated the war's impact on the Strait of Hormuz, where we've seen Iran attack several major oil tankers. Secretary Hegseth denied that report earlier, calling it untrue. What more can you tell us?

BERTRAND: Yes. This is reporting by my colleagues that the administration really did not plan for the possibility that Iran was going to fully try to close off the strait, because it was just seen as not in Iran's interest to do so, that they would want to keep the strait open because they also have oil moving in and out of that waterway.

And so there was not a lot of planning that went into the possibility of Iran fully closing this area. And we are starting to see that play out a little bit now with the U.S. military taking very aggressive steps to try to destroy Iran's mine-laying capabilities in the straits, but still no real plan here to get a Navy escort operation underway to try to safely escort vessels through the waterway that are currently being impacted by Iranian missiles and drones, for example.

Secretary Hegseth did speak a little bit about this and he said that the U.S. and the world, they don't need to worry about it.

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Here's what he said.

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PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Seeing they are exercising sheer desperation in the Straits of Hormuz is something we're dealing with. We have been dealing with it and don't need to worry about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERTRAND: Obviously this is a huge concern for not only the U.S. but the international economy. Global oil prices have spiked. And, again, it remains unclear just when an operation by the U.S. military to try to take back the straight and safely escort ships through is actually going to happen.

BLITZER: All right. We'll see what happens, very important development indeed. Natasha, thank you very, very much.

Also this morning, the FBI now says that the terror attack on a synagogue near Detroit yesterday was, quote, a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community. The Department of Homeland Security identified the suspect who rammed his vehicle into the synagogue as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali. And moments ago, the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, spoke about the incident. Listen to this.

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GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): I want Michigan's Jewish community to know that we are with you violence in our houses of worship and in our schools and in our daycare centers like this hits especially hard.

Yesterday's attack was anti-Semitism. It was hate, plain and simple. We will fight this ancient and rampant evil. We will stand together as we do it, and we will call it out. We must lower the rhetoric in this state and in this country, especially at this moment where we have seen such a rise in anti-Semitism and more attacks on the Jewish community.

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BLITZER: All right. Let's go live right now to CNN Law Enforcement Correspondent Whitney Wild who is on the scene for us. Whitney, what work are you learning this morning?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're learning more about what happened inside that building as law enforcement continues to share a few details over the last 24 hours.

Let me just walk you through exactly what happened. It was at 12:19 yesterday afternoon that this vehicle drove through the front of the building all the way into the hallway. This is a temple. It is enormous. This is one of the biggest, if not the biggest temples in this area. And this houses a preschool. Very young children were inside, infants all the way up through preschool-aged children. So, this had the potential to be absolutely enormously catastrophic.

But it was only through the heroic acts of the security team on scene that this suspect was immediately neutralized. As that suspect drove into the temple, he hit that first security guard. That security guard was taken to the hospital. Multiple others engaged the suspect, and we know he died on scene. The vehicle was then engulfed in flames and officials say that the body inside was burned quite badly.

The area in that temple became completely filled with smoke. It was very difficult to evacuate the children that were inside, and yet law enforcement was able to do that very quickly. Those that were inside described teachers snuggling the children, singing to them to try to keep them calm as they made this really miraculous evacuation.

Around 30 first responders who rushed directly in risking their own lives, because as we know, Wolf, there was a rifle in that vehicle that means ammunition. It could have detonated, and there were also explosive materials inside that vehicle. So, again, this could have been absolutely catastrophic, law enforcement risking their own lives to go directly to the source, around 30 first responders were treated for smoke inhalation.

Now, officials are giving very few details about what they believe the specific motivation was, although that is, of course, the biggest question. The FBI had said yesterday that this was clearly a hateful, terrible act, but stopped short of describing a specific motivation.

Sources are telling CNN's Holmes Lybrand, Hannah Rabinowitz, John Miller, as well as Kasie Hunt, that they believe that this man is from an area called Dearborn Heights. He was born in Lebanon. He became a U.S. citizen in 2016. And what he had communicated to people around him was that he had family in Lebanon who were killed by Israeli airstrikes in recent days. Although, again, law enforcement stopping short of describing a specific motivation. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Whitney Wild on the scene for us just outside Detroit, thank you very, very much.

Let's discuss what's going on with Jonathan Greenblatt. He's the CEO of the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League. Jonathan, thanks so much for joining us.

I understand you have some friends and colleagues who actually belong to Temple Israel. What are you hearing from members of the Jewish community about this latest act of violence targeting these American Jews?

JONATHAN GREENBLATT, CEO, ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: Well, yes. As Whitney kind of said just now, I mean, this is the largest reformed temple in North America. It's a huge place. I've been there, I've spoken there. My local staff belonged to the synagogue. Our local board chair belongs to Temple Israel. It's a very special place.

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So, number one, everyone is grateful for the security personnel, law enforcement, the first responders.

Wolf, I want you just to imagine, that building had 140 preschool children inside when the car rammed through the doors and drove through the hallway. If not for the bravery of the security personnel, 140 children would have been blown up by the explosives packed in that car, if not shot to death. So, they averted a major, major tragedy.

But what I must say is the real tragedy here is that this synagogue has to have security personnel, bulletproof glass, alarm systems, and it's still not enough. The Jewish community spent three quarters of a billion dollars last year on security, and yet somehow our synagogues, our schools aren't hardened enough. This is no longer a problem. This is a crisis, and it has got to be dealt with.

BLITZER: And as you know, Jonathan, there have been recent shootings all over the country involving synagogues, including three synagogues in the Toronto, Canada, area, Toronto, not very far away from Detroit. We're also learning that four suspects have been arrested following an overnight arson attack at a synagogue in the Netherlands.

You say this attack in the Detroit area did not happen in isolation. Explain a little bit more what you mean.

GREENBLATT: Yes, it didn't happen in isolation. We have an epidemic. So, think about it. The synagogues were shot up in Toronto, like you said. In Jackson, Mississippi, a synagogue was burned to the ground. We've had Jewish people assaulted in broad daylight just yesterday in San Jose, California because they were speaking Hebrew. And, of course, now we have this attack. And, again, it's happening around the world. We had a bomb thrown at a synagogue in Belgium last week. Again, you just mentioned the attack in the Netherlands.

So, look, we are seeing Jewish people, the Jewish state blamed for the war in the Middle East. That is wrong. It is wrong to scapegoat. It is wrong to hold Jewish people accountable for something you don't like on the other side of the planet.

And we really need leaders on all sides in politics, running for office, podcasters to stop with the conspiracies, to stop with the accusations and then tell us, but we oppose anti-Semitism. You don't get to say you are opposed to hate if you're trafficking in hateful conspiracy theories. Everyone needs to dial down the rhetoric, to take a step back and to start doing something to stop this epidemic before it gets even worse.

BLITZER: And it's continuing all over the country right now, right?

GREENBLATT: Yes, it is. I mean, look at ADL, we focus on protecting the Jewish community, we have never been busier. Like our whole center on extremism is detecting threats, Wolf, 24/7, and we are seeing in huge intensification, particularly in the last two weeks since the war started. And it's wrong. Again, what I worry about is synagogues can afford security directors, but a kosher supermarket can't. And nor can every like household, Jewish household in America.

So, we are not targets for people's kind of crazy politics. We are Americans, like everybody else, and we need leaders to lead and to acknowledge the issue and help us to solve it once and for all.

BLITZER: Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL, thank you so much for your expertise. Thanks very much for joining us.

GREENBLATT: Thank you.

BLITZER: And still ahead, we're getting new details now on another terror attack, this one at Old Dominion University in Virginia. What we know about the shooter's past, including a prison sentence for trying to help ISIS.

And we'll ask a Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee about the Pentagon's assertion that Americans don't need to worry about the impact of Iran's attacks in the Strait of Hormuz.

Lots going on. You're in The Situation Room.

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BLITZER: New this morning, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is downplaying the severity of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. This after Iran's new supreme leader purportedly said yesterday that the Strait would effectively remain closed as a tool of pressure, his words.

Here is Secretary Hegseth at the Pentagon briefing this morning.

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HEGSETH: And as the world is seeing, they are exercising sheer desperation in the Straits of Hormuz. It's something we're dealing with. We have been dealing with it and don't need to worry about it.

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BLITZER: And joining us now to discuss, the Democratic congressman from Illinois, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi. He sits on the House Oversight as well as the House Intelligence Committee.

CNN's reporting, Congressman, it indicates that the Pentagon and the National Security Council significantly underestimated Iran's willingness to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to these U.S. military strikes while planning the ongoing operation. Defense Secretary Hegseth just said this is patently ridiculous. Do you believe the administration fully considered how this war would impact the Strait of Hormuz and the supply of oil, the price of gasoline, for example?

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): Yes, they totally underestimated it. And whenever Secretary Hegseth says, don't worry about something, I think we should start worrying about it. It's another unserious comment about a very serious situation and why I've called for his resignation repeatedly.

Look, you know, the Strait of Hormuz carries one fifth of the world's oil supply, and Iran can -- you know, basically has a lot of say about how freely that oil will flow and we're seeing the impact of the volatility of the region on our gas prices right now.

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In Chicago alone, it's gone up between 50 and 90 cents per gallon.

So, yes, consumers should be extremely concerned about what's going on there, and this is another result of an illegal and unconstitutional war, and we should end the hostilities now.

BLITZER: As I pointed out the other day here in the Washington, D.C., area, for example, a week ago, I was paying around $3 a gallon. Now it's $4 a gallon just within a week or so. President Trump, for his part, is still encouraging oil tanker crews to press forward, saying in an interview with Fox that crews should, quote, show some guts, his words, show some guts. The U.S. Navy is the most powerful in the world.

Would you support using U.S. Navy assets to escort commercial tankers through the straight if necessary?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Look, I think that they'd be sitting ducks for these Shahed drones and these ballistic missiles at this point. The big problem that we have right now is that we've completely underestimated the impact of these one-way kamikaze drones that Iran possesses thousands of, in addition to their ballistic missiles. And so I think the Iranians would welcome the opportunity to take pot shots at our U.S. Naval vessels traversing the Strait of Hormuz.

At this point, I think, again, the president should come to the people for their consent for any further hostilities. In the meantime, we're going to press forward with war powers resolutions ending those hostilities. I think the reason why he doesn't want to come to Congress is because he doesn't have answers to tough questions that the people have, such as what's the goal of this, how long will we be there, what's the exit strategy. We're just bumbling at this point, and yet another quagmire and potentially an endless war again.

BLITZER: We are just learning. Congressman, this very sad news that all of the crew members aboard that U.S. military refueling plane that crashed in Iraq have now died, all six members of that crew. What's your reaction?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: We pray for their families. These people have given their last full measure of devotion to our country. At the same time, the costs are mounting. Now, at least by my rough estimate, it looks like 13 men and women have died as part of this particular Operation Epic Fury. 140 have been injured, including at least maybe ten with life-threatening injuries at this point, and we haven't even talked about the economic costs, which are mounting and inflicting real pain on the American economy, which is, which is already reeling from horrible economic policies of the Trump administration. Inflation is ticking up as well. So, again, these hostilities need to end right now.

BLITZER: I know you're well briefed as a member of the intelligence committee, Congressman. Iran's new leader, the Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei issued his first statement since becoming Iran's new supreme leader. His written statement was read by a host on Iranian state T.V., so we do not see him or hear directly from him. A source told CNN that he suffered a fractured foot and other minor injuries on the first day of the U.S.-Israeli attacks. And here's what Hegseth said about him just a little while ago. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HEGSETH: We know the new so-called not so supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured. He put out a statement yesterday, a weak one actually, but there was no voice and there was no video. It was a written statement. Why a written statement? I think you know why. His father dead, he's scared, he's injured, he's on the run, and he lacks legitimacy. It's a mess for them. Who's in charge? Iran may not even know.

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BLITZER: Do you believe Khamenei is still alive?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I believe so. I think that based on kind of unclassified reports, he is still in charge. However, I think that, definitely, the -- I believe the IRGC is largely calling the shots at this point along with others. And there's no regime change if that is what Donald Trump sought, if that was one of the goals. In fact, not only is there no regime change, it might have hardened and gotten worse.

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And this guy, Mojtaba, Mojtaba Khamenei, is considered to be even more extreme than his father, and he's even more in line with the IRGC.

So, I think that, again, we are kind of going down a reckless and dangerous path here. And I think that, you know, Secretary Hegseth's comments notwithstanding, I think that we're kind of bumbling down a very dangerous course at this point.

BLITZER: Democratic Congressman Raja Christian Murthy of Illinois, thanks as usual for joining us. We'll continue this conversation, to be sure.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you.

BLITZER: And coming up, one person is dead after a gunman barged into a college classroom in Virginia and started shooting. That gunman is now dead. And we're learning new details about him, his past, and his possible motivations. We're live from Virginia. That's coming up next.

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