From nbcnews.com
Out of more than 300 missiles and drones Iran fired, only four or five hit Israel, and none caused major damage, William Burns said.
Iran’s missile and drone barrage against Israel last weekend “turned out to be a spectacular failure,” with nearly all of the projectiles failing to hit Israel, CIA Director William Burns said Thursday.
Speaking at an event at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Burns said that the thwarting of the missile and drone assault showed the strength of Israel’s military and that it had “friends” in the world, including the U.S. and other countries that helped, as well.
“The Iranians fired off something like 330 drones and missiles combined,” Burns said. “Of those 330 missiles, only four or five actually impacted in Israel, and none of them did any significant damage.
“It’s a reminder of the quality of the Israeli military,” he added. “It’s a reminder of the fact that the Israelis have friends starting with the United States, but others, as well.”
President Joe Biden and other senior U.S. officials hope tensions may ease slightly in the region but said Israel was still weighing how it would respond to Tehran.
The Israeli government, “as we sit here this afternoon, is considering a response to what happened last Saturday night,” Burns said.
“I think the broad hope of the president and policymakers in the administration is that we’ll find a way to de-escalate the situation,” he said.
Burns, a former career diplomat who was ambassador to Russia, said he had visited Ukraine about a month ago and heard firsthand from Ukrainian military officers about their critical ammunition shortages.
Burns said he was in Ukraine just days after Russian forces captured the town of Adiivka in eastern Ukraine.
“I talked to one of the senior officers who was there, and he described it in pretty simple terms,” Burns said. “He said, ‘We fought as long and as hard as we could, but the Russians just kept coming, and we ran out of ammunition.’”
He said a 2,000-strong Ukrainian brigade in the Adiivka battle tried to fend off Russians with “a grand total” of 15 artillery rounds a day and 42 mortar rounds.
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