{"id":2929,"date":"2026-03-09T22:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T22:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/2929\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T22:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T22:02:08","slug":"u-s-military-refuses-to-endorse-trump-claim-that-iran-bombed-girls-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/2929\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Military Refuses to Endorse Trump Claim That Iran Bombed Girls\u2019 School"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump claimed that Iran, not the U.S., struck an elementary school in the southern Iranian town of Minab, the attack with the highest civilian death toll in Trump\u2019s second Iran war<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Three current and former defense officials, however, pushed back on his claims. Even Trump\u2019s own Pentagon chief, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, refused to back him up. U.S. Central Command appeared to suggest that Trump\u2019s comments were \u201cinappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is another instance of Trump lying and just talking out of his ass,\u201d said a U.S. government official who reviewed satellite images of the Shajarah Tayyebeh school. \u201cThis clearly was not a failed rocket from the IRGC base.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. official was referring to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy base that was adjacent to the school. The claim that the IRGC struck the school spread as part of a misinformation campaign about the attack<\/a> peddled by social media accounts that support restoring Iran\u2019s monarchy.<\/p>\n

The U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely, said it was clear that Iran did not strike the school. Trump, however, endorsed the dubious claim when taking questions from the press aboard Air Force One on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on what I\u2019ve seen, it was done by Iran,\u201d Trump said of the attack, which killed at least 175 people, many of them children, according to Iranian health officials and state media.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hegseth, standing alongside Trump, was asked if that was true and failed to endorse the claim<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re certainly investigating,\u201d he said before offering a non-denial denial. \u201cBut the only side that targets civilians is Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked for comment on the status of the U.S. military investigation, U.S. Central Command, the regional military command that oversees the Middle East, said that getting ahead of the investigation\u2019s findings \u2014 precisely what Trump did \u2014 was improper.<\/p>\n

The CENTCOM spokesperson, who did not give their name, said, \u201cIt would be inappropriate to comment given the incident is under investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Missile Used Only by U.S.<\/p>\n

A video released<\/a> on Sunday by Iran\u2019s semiofficial Mehr News Agency shows a cruise missile striking the naval base beside the elementary school as smoke appears to billow from the school itself, indicating that it had been struck just before the attack on the IRGC base. According to Bellingcat<\/a>, the cruise missile was a Tomahawk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis entire compound \u2014 including the girls\u2019 school \u2014 was deliberately targeted in a highly precise strike operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis munition is only employed by the U.S., not Israel or Iran,\u201d said Wes Bryant, a former Special Operations joint terminal attack controller who called in thousands of strikes across the greater Middle East.<\/p>\n

Bryant, a former adviser to a Pentagon body<\/a> that provides analysis and training to mitigate civilian harm, said all were clearly struck by targeted munitions, with the school likely hit due to \u201ctarget misidentification,\u201d meaning U.S. forces mistook it for a military target.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strikes on this compound have the signature of a U.S. strike,\u201d Bryant told The Intercept. \u201cThe strikes on this compound are also incredibly precise and well-placed. This entire compound \u2014 including the girls\u2019 school \u2014 was deliberately targeted in a highly precise strike operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school was once connected to the IRGC base by roads, the building was partitioned off by 2016, according to an investigation<\/a> by New Lines Magazine. Reports of the attack\u00a0<\/a>began to appear on\u00a0social media<\/a>\u00a0just after 11:30 a.m. local time. An analysis<\/a> by the New York Times based on satellite imagery, social media posts, and verified videos found that the school was hit at roughly the same time as the naval base. The video released<\/a> on Sunday by the Mehr News Agency appears to confirm this.<\/p>\n

Another former Pentagon official who specialized in civilian harm issues echoed Bryant and the current U.S. official.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entry holes suggest a near perpendicular entry. Meaning, this strike was precisely targeting the structures from high above.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entry holes suggest a near perpendicular entry. Meaning, this strike was precisely targeting the structures from high above, not some short range attack with a ballistic missile,\u201d said the former Pentagon official, who spoke on background because their present employment doesn\u2019t allow them to comment. The official said the vertical entry suggested a more parabolic trajectory than a short-range missile would show, indicating a longer-range weapon was used.<\/p>\n

That former defense official pushed back against Trump\u2019s claims, noting that the attack occurred within an hour of the announcement of U.S.\u2013Israeli strikes and an hour before any reported Iranian retaliation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll evidence,\u201d said the former official, \u201cpoints to the compound being repeatedly attacked \u2014 over the course of a couple hours potentially \u2014 with highly accurate munitions that we know the U.S. and Israel routinely use and have used in strikes across Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

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High Rate of Strikes<\/p>\n

CENTCOM would not offer an estimated civilian death toll for the U.S. war on Iran. More than 1,230 Iranian civilians have been killed, according to the Tehran Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica, regardless of what so-called international institutions say, is unleashing the most lethal and precise air power campaign in history,\u201d Hegseth said<\/a> at a March 2 press conference. \u201cNo stupid rules of engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new investigation by Airwars<\/a>, a U.K.-based air strike monitoring group, found that the first days of the Iran war saw far more sites targeted than any recent U.S. or Israeli military campaign.<\/p>\n


\"HANDOUT <\/p>\n

\n Read Our Complete Coverage <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the rate of civilian harm cannot be solely predicted by the number of targets hit, initial indications suggest it has been high \u2014 particularly with U.S. targets correlating with heavily populated areas,\u201d according to the Airwars report. \u201cThe targets map heavily onto the highest populated areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the stuff of tyrannical dictators to fabricate such propaganda for the sake of saving face and discrediting one\u2019s enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Bryant, the former Pentagon adviser on civilian harm, Trump\u2019s claim that Iran hit the school is part of a pattern \u2014 and a dark turn for the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the administration truly believed that this was Iranian-caused, whether intentionally or inadvertently, then they should have immediately stated so, along with providing intelligence or information that proves such an assertion. But we know this was not the case,\u201d Bryant said. \u201cIt is the stuff of tyrannical dictators to fabricate such propaganda for the sake of saving face and discrediting one\u2019s enemies. This is not the behavior of a leader of the free world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump claimed that Iran, not the U.S., struck an elementary school in the southern Iranian town…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1493,2646,8,1501,1494,9,1492,1498,1499,1500,1496,1497,2647,7,2648],"class_list":{"0":"post-2929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-article-type-article-post","9":"tag-day-monday","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-language-english","12":"tag-medium","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-page-type-article","15":"tag-partner-factiva","16":"tag-partner-smart-news","17":"tag-partner-social-flow","18":"tag-subject-national-security","19":"tag-subject-world","20":"tag-time-16-00","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-wc-1000-1999"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116201478105839999","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}