NBC News Tehran bureau chief Ali Arouzi relayed an Iranian state media report indicating that Iranian rocket attacks had killed 30 American soldiers—a report that was not confirmed and proved erroneous.
"The IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] was saying that Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader of this country, was in the control center coordinating these attacks," he told anchor Chris Matthews during a broadcast of Hardball on MSNBC. "This bit I'm not sure about but Iran state media says 30 U.S. soldiers have been killed in this attack.
"This is not confirmed, it's just coming from Iranian media."
He also said that Iran and the United States have "entered a very unpredictable time."
Iran launched a missile attack on U.S. forces in Iraq Tuesday night. The U.S. military said Tehran fired more than 12 ballistic missiles targeting at least two Iraqi military bases that house U.S. troops.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the rockets were launched in retaliation for the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. A Pentagon spokesman said the U.S. military was working on an assessment of the damage from the strikes.
"This is drawing people from all sides into this what is potentially the beginning of a war, Chris," Arouzi said. "I don't know how this is going to go in the coming hours, but it's not looking good from the rhetoric that came out from President Trump earlier today saying that he will retaliate against any retaliation from Iran. I think we can expect an attack on Iran imminently."