Tehran announced Thursday that a US missile strike on a sports hall in southern Iran killed 21 civilians, including teenagers, on February 28. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei condemned the assault as a “despicable war crime” and said the weapon used was America’s new PrSM missile. “The missile explodes above its target, dispersing thousands of lethal fragments to maximize human casualties,” he wrote on X, adding that the facility was “filled with innocent teenagers.”
New US weapon leaves mass casualties
Visual evidence reviewed by The New York Times and weapons experts confirmed that a newly developed US Army Precision Strike Missile (PrSM)—a short-range ballistic missile—struck a sports hall and an adjacent elementary school near a military compound in Lamerd, Fars province. The strike is among the deadliest single attacks on civilians since the US-Israeli air campaign against Iran began. According to Tehran, 21 young boys and girls lost their lives in the blast.
Wider conflict and Türkiye’s stance
The US and Israel have maintained an air offensive on Iran since February 28, killing more than 1,340 people to date, including then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Iran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and Gulf nations hosting American military assets, causing infrastructure damage and disrupting global markets and aviation. Türkiye has repeatedly called for an immediate halt to strikes on civilian sites and urged both sides to return to diplomacy, warning that such attacks threaten to draw the entire region into a wider war.