On Feb. 28 \u2014 the day the United States launched its first wave of attacks on Iran \u2014 a missile struck the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school for girls in Minab, near the Strait of Hormuz. At least 175 people were killed, according to Iranian officials. Most of them were children.<\/p>\n
And now it looks like the U.S. was responsible for the deadly attack.<\/p>\n
An ongoing U.S. military investigation has determined that the school was destroyed by an American Tomahawk cruise missile as the \u201cresult of a targeting mistake,\u201d according to\u00a0 U.S. officials and others familiar with the preliminary findings who spoke to the New York Times<\/a>. (Reuters first reported<\/a> on March 5 that \u201cmilitary investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible.\u201d)<\/p>\n The Times went on to characterize the strike on a school full of young girls as \u201cone of the most devastating single military errors in recent decades.\u201d It has been condemned by the Iranian government, UNESCO and other human rights organizations and activists as a violation of international humanitarian law.<\/p>\n As of Thursday afternoon, the U.S. has not officially accepted responsibility. At first, President Trump blamed the Iranians; in recent days, he has pivoted to saying he is unaware of his administration\u2019s preliminary findings. Other members of the Trump administration have declined to comment, saying only that the incident is under investigation.<\/p>\n On Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that U.S. Central Command had designated a general officer \u201cfrom outside CENTCOM\u201d to further investigate the attack.<\/p>\n \u201cThe command investigation will take as long as necessary to address all the matters surrounding this incident,\u201d Hegseth added.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s everything we know so far about the Shajarah Tayyebeh strike.<\/p>\n What happened<\/p>\n A missile struck Shajarah Tayyebeh mid-morning on Saturday, Feb. 28. (Saturday is a workday in Iran.) The U.S.-Israeli onslaught began around 10 a.m., just as students were arriving at school. In response, Shajarah Tayyebeh decided to close for the rest of the day, according to an Iranian teachers\u2019 representative<\/a>, but parents were unable to retrieve their children in time.<\/p>\n By 10:45, Shajarah Tayyebeh had been hit.<\/p>\n The impact destroyed at least half of the two-story school building. Videos and images verified by U.S. media outlets showed dozens of Iranians gathered around the partially collapsed structure as black smoke billowed from its windows. According to the Times<\/a>, \u201cemergency workers with the Red Crescent\u201d \u2014 the equivalent of the Red Cross in Muslim-majority countries \u2014 \u201ccould be seen alongside families desperately combing through the rubble, which was littered with schoolbooks and book bags covered in blood and ashes.\u201d<\/p>\n What remained of the school\u2019s blue, muraled walls \u2014 crayons, flowers, leaves, an apple<\/a>, a child reading \u2014 could be seen in the background.<\/p>\n Rescue workers retrieved a severed arm<\/a> from the rubble. Victims were laid out in body bags<\/a> at the scene.<\/p>\n According to the Iranian Ministry of Education, 264 students were present at the time of the attack. Most of them were girls between the ages of 7 and 12. In addition to the dead,\u00a0 Iranian officials have said the strike injured nearly 100 people \u2014 making it the worst mass civilian casualty event of the war so far and one of the worst in recent U.S. military history.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Minab school incident has no comparison with any other incident,\u201d the head of Iran\u2019s Red Crescent said, in a March 1 video posted on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cEven in Gaza\u201d so many students had never been killed simultaneously, he added, calling the attack \u201ca unique and bitter incident.\u201d<\/p>\n What U.S. investigators have found<\/p>\n Initial speculation focused on Israel, but subsequent reporting linked the strike to the United States.<\/p>\n The evidence has been mounting for more than a week.<\/p>\n Shajarah Tayyebeh is located right next to a naval base that belongs to Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard, or IRGC \u2014 the country\u2019s most powerful military force. In fact, the school building used to be part of the base.<\/p>\n Satellite images show that by September 2016, the building had been walled off and separated from the adjacent military compound. According to the Times<\/a>, \u201cwatchtowers that once stood near the building had been removed, three public entrances were opened to the school, ground was cleared and play areas including a sports field were painted on asphalt, and walls were painted blue and pink.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet after U.S. officials confirmed that U.S. forces were attacking naval targets near the Strait of Hormuz on the day in question, the Times and other outlets were able to determine by March 5 that the school strike occurred \u201cat the same time<\/a>\u201d as attacks on the IRGC\u2019s adjacent naval base. The timing suggested that U.S. forces, not Israeli forces, were \u201cmost likely to have carried out the strike.\u201d<\/p>\n A few days later, on March 8, Iran\u2019s government-sponsored Mehr News Agency uploaded a video \u2014 subsequently verified by the Times<\/a> and others \u2014 showing a Tomahawk cruise missile striking the IRGC naval base next to Shajarah Tayyebeh.<\/p>\n The U.S. military is the only force involved in the conflict that uses Tomahawks.<\/p>\n On March 9, Iran\u2019s state broadcaster posted photos of mangled missile fragments on Telegram and claimed they were \u201cthe remains of the American missile that landed on the children of Minab school.\u201d The Times verified<\/a> that the fragments bore \u201cthe markings\u201d of \u201ca U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missile manufactured in 2014 or later\u201d (while also noting that \u201cit is not clear where or how the fragments were recovered \u2014 or whether they pertain specifically to the school strike\u201d).<\/p>\n When asked on March 4 if the United States had struck the school, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, \u201cNot that we know of.\u201d She added that \u201cthe Department of War is investigating this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, according to the Times<\/a>, a preliminary U.S. military investigation has confirmed what many had come to fear: that \u201cthe Feb. 28 strike on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school building was the result of a targeting mistake by the U.S. military, which was conducting strikes on an adjacent Iranian base of which the school building was formerly a part.\u201d<\/p>\n How could U.S. forces make such a disastrous targeting mistake? People briefed on the investigation told the Times that \u201cofficers at U.S. Central Command created the target coordinates for the strike using outdated data provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency.\u201d In effect, they said, the DIA should have updated its \u201ctarget coding\u201d \u2014 perhaps with new imagery or data from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency \u2014 to differentiate the school building from the IRGC base. Instead, they \u201clabeled the school building as a military target\u201d and then passed that erroneous information to Central Command.<\/p>\n What Trump has said<\/p>\n March 7: \u201cNo, in my opinion, based on what I\u2019ve seen, that was done by Iran,\u201d Trump said when a reporter aboard Air Force One asked<\/a> if the U.S. had bombed Shajareh Tayyebeh. \u201cWe think it was done by Iran \u2014 because they are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n A reporter then asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was standing nearby, whether he agreed with the president. \u201cWe\u2019re certainly investigating,\u201d Hegseth said. He then added that \u201cthe only side that targets civilians is Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n March 9:\u00a0 At a press conference in Miami, a reporter confronted<\/a> Trump about \u201cfootage that shows that an American missile strike and a Tomahawk missile likely destroyed that Iranian girls’ school.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWill the U.S. accept any responsibility for that strike?” the reporter asked.<\/p>\n “Well, I haven’t seen it, and I will say that the Tomahawk, which is one of the most powerful weapons around is \u2026 sold and used by other countries,\u201d Trump responded. \u201cAnd whether it’s Iran, [which] also has some Tomahawks. They wish they had more. But whether it’s Iran or somebody else, the fact that a Tomahawk \u2014 a Tomahawk is very generic. It’s sold to other countries. But that’s being investigated right now.”<\/p>\n The only other countries that use Tomahawks are Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Netherlands, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies<\/a>. Iran doesn\u2019t have any Tomahawks. Pressed to explain why he believed that \u201cIran somehow got its hands on a Tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war,\u201d Trump backtracked a little.<\/p>\n \u201cI just don’t know enough about it. I think it’s something that I was told is under investigation,\u201d he said. \u201cWhatever the report shows, I’m willing to live with that report.\u201d<\/p>\n March 10: Citing a \u201cnew report\u201d about military investigators\u2019 preliminary finding of U.S. culpability, a reporter asked Trump outside the White House if he would take responsibility for the school strike as commander in chief<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know about that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe investigation is still ongoing,\u201d Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement. She has also said that Trump will accept the results of the U.S. military investigation.<\/p>\n Will anyone be held accountable?<\/p>\n The day after the strike, UNESCO \u2014 the United Nations\u2019 cultural and education agency \u2014 said in a statement<\/a> that \u201cthe killing of pupils in a place dedicated to learning constitutes a grave violation of the protection afforded to schools under international humanitarian law.\u201d<\/p>\n Intentionally attacking a school, hospital or other civilian structure is a war crime; indiscriminate strikes also violate the law. Mistakes are more complicated, as a legal matter.<\/p>\n On Thursday, 46 Democratic senators sent a letter<\/a> to Hegseth demanding a \u201cswift investigation into the strikes on this school and any other potential U.S. military actions causing civilian harm.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTo be clear, the war against Iran is a war of choice without Congressional authorization,\u201d the senators wrote. \u201cNonetheless, as these military actions continue, the United States and Israel must abide by U.S. and international law, including the law of armed conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n Citing Hegseth\u2019s recent vow that Operation Epic Fury would have \u201cno stupid rules of engagement\u201d \u2014 just \u201cdeath and destruction from the sky all day long\u201d \u2014 the senators accused him of \u201cabandoning the Defense Department\u2019s commitment to minimizing civilian harm in U.S. military operations.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, Hegseth slashed the Pentagon oversight offices that would have investigated the school strike, including the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, a group that assists in limiting risk to civilians. According to Politico<\/a>, about 90% of the 200 employees who previously worked on civilian casualties have been eliminated.<\/p>\n Is AI to blame?<\/p>\n