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A preliminary investigation into the airstrike on a girls’ elementary school in Iran that killed at least 175 people, mostly children, has found that the U.S. likely created target coordinates for the strike using outdated military maps.
The U.S. military has yet to formally state that the U.S. was directly involved in the massacre. However, The New York Times reports that a preliminary military investigation into the double-tap strike found that the U.S. was responsible.
Several officials familiar with the strike have told NBC News that the decision to bomb Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab was based on outdated intelligence indicating that it was an Iranian military site. The sources said that meant the bombing was intentional, though it’s possible the U.S. did not know at the time that the site had become a girls’ school.
Iranian officials have said that the site was last used as a military compound a decade and a half ago. For years, the building had clear visual indications that it was a school, The Guardian reports — including colorful murals and small sports fields, both of which were visible in some satellite imagery.
The sources, which include U.S. officials, said that it’s not clear at what step of the vetting process for targets the mistake was made.
Although the military’s findings indicate that the U.S. was responsible for the massacre, President Donald Trump has sought to suggest otherwise. Earlier this week, Trump went so far as to blame Iran for the strike on the school, which was launched during the first wave of the U.S. and Israel’s joint attacks on February 28.
“In my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran,” Trump said on Sunday. “Because they are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran.”
Munitions experts who have viewed video of the attack say it was conducted with a Tomahawk Land Attack Missile, which was developed by the U.S.
“The footage appears to contradict President Donald Trump’s claim it was an Iranian missile that hit the school,” said former U.S. Army explosive ordnance disposal technician and Bellingcat journalist Trevor Ball.
Ball also said that the attack was unlikely to be Iranian, because it’s believed the country does not possess Tomahawk missiles.
The U.S. “is the only participant in the war that is known to have” those types of missiles, Ball said. According to The New York Times and Dayton Daily News, missile debris from the girls’ school strike appears to have been manufactured by a weapons contractor in Ohio.
Trump has dismissed these facts and the report from The New York Times. On Wednesday, when asked by journalists at the White House to respond to the report, Trump simply said, “I don’t know about it.”
UNESCO, the educational arm of the United Nations, released a statement shortly after the attack, stating that the agency was “deeply alarmed” by the killings.
“The killing of pupils in a place dedicated to learning constitutes a grave violation of the protection afforded to schools under international humanitarian law,” UNESCO said on its social media.
“Attacks against educational institutions endanger students and teachers and undermine the right to education,” the agency added.
On Wednesday, several Democratic and independent U.S. senators sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, expressing “grave concern” over the “horrific” massacre.
“The majority of those killed in the strikes were girls between the ages of 7 and 12 years old,” the letter pointed out, adding that this strike and others against civilian targets “are not taking place in a vacuum.”
“As Secretary of Defense, you set the tone for U.S. military conduct, and your recent comments send a clear message of disregard for the laws of war,” the letter writers added, citing Hegseth’s recent remark that the Iran war would have “no stupid rules of engagement” and that there would be “death and destruction” in Iran at the hands of the U.S.
“This rhetoric only serves to endanger civilians, including American citizens, in the region and around the globe,” the senators wrote, adding that Hegseth’s remarks and the military actions taken by the White House “suggest the administration has abandoned its duty to protect civilians.”
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