{"id":644044,"date":"2026-03-09T21:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T21:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/644044\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T21:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T21:24:13","slug":"footage-further-points-to-us-airstrike-in-iran-school-blast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/644044\/","title":{"rendered":"Footage further points to US airstrike in Iran school blast"},"content":{"rendered":"

JERUSALEM (AP) \u2014 New footage shows what an expert investigative group says is likely an American Tomahawk missile hitting a compound in southern Iran, meters from the school where a deadly unclaimed blast killed over 165 people at the start of the war raging in the Mideast. <\/p>\n

It comes as mounting evidence<\/a> points to U.S. culpability for the Feb. 28 strike, which hit a school adjacent to a Revolutionary Guard base in Minab, Iran, in the country\u2019s southern Hormozgan Province. Experts interviewed by The Associated Press, citing satellite image analysis, say the school was probably struck amid a quick succession of bombs dropped on the compound. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A U.S. official familiar with internal deliberations on the matter has told the AP that the strike was likely American. The official spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the sensitive matter.<\/p>\n

The new footage, first analyzed by the investigative group Bellingcat, was taken the day the school was struck but circulated Sunday by Iran\u2019s semiofficial Mehr news agency. It shows a missile hitting a building, sending a dark plume of smoke into the air. <\/p>\n

The AP was able to geolocate the video and determine it was taken from a site adjacent to the school, while smoke was already rising from the school vicinity. Satellite imagery of the compound is consistent with visual identifiers found in the video, including a flat-roofed building, power lines and vehicles.<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: New footage raises likelihood the US struck an Iranian school where a blast killed at least 165\n <\/p>\n

AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports footage further points to it being a U.S. airstrike that hit an Iran school on February 28.<\/p>\n

Trevor Ball, a Bellingcat researcher, identified the munition as a Tomahawk cruise missile \u2014 which only the U.S. is known to possess in this war. It\u2019s the first evidence of a munition used in the strike. <\/p>\n

U.S. Central Command has acknowledged using Tomahawk missiles in this war and even released a photo<\/a> of the USS Spruance, part of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group located within range of the school, firing a Tomahawk missile on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n

Bellingcat said the footage \u201cappears to contradict\u201d U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s claim that Iran was responsible for the deadly school blast. Neither the U.S. military\u2019s Central Command nor the Israeli military immediately replied to requests for comment Monday from the AP.<\/p>\n

When asked by a reporter Saturday whether the U.S. was responsible for the blast, which killed mostly children, Trump responded, without providing evidence: \u201cNo, in my opinion, based on what I\u2019ve seen, that was done by Iran.\u201d Trump added that Iran is \u201cvery inaccurate\u201d with its munitions. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth quickly chimed in to say the U.S. was investigating. <\/p>\n

Several other factors point to a U.S. strike.<\/p>\n

One is the launching of an assessment of the incident by the U.S. military<\/a>. According to the Pentagon\u2019s instructions on processes for mitigating civilian harm, an assessment is launched after a group of investigators make an initial determination that the U.S. military may bear culpability. <\/p>\n

Another is the location of the school \u2014 next to the Revolutionary Guard base and close to barracks for a naval unit. The U.S. military has focused on naval targets and acknowledged strikes in the province, including one in the vicinity of the school. Israel, which has denied conducting the strike, has focused on areas of Iran closer to Israel and hasn\u2019t reported any strikes south of Isfahan, 800 kilometers (500 miles) away.<\/p>\n

Complicating any assessment of the incident is the lack of images of bomb fragments from the blast. No independent agency has reached the site during the war to investigate. <\/p>\n

Janina Dill, an expert on international law at Oxford University, wrote on X that even if the strike was a misidentification \u2014 and the attacker believed that the school had been a part of the neighboring IRGC base \u2014 it would still be \u201ca very serious violation of international law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAttackers are under an obligation to do everything feasible to verify the status of targeted object,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n

The Trump administration, however, strikes a different tone on international humanitarian law. <\/p>\n

Speaking about the U.S. operation at a press conference March 2, Hegseth said: \u201cAmerica, regardless of what so-called international institutions say, is unleashing the most lethal and precise air power campaign in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo stupid rules of engagement,\u201d he said. \u201cNo politically correct wars. We fight to win, and we don\u2019t waste time or lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Doral, Florida, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JERUSALEM (AP) \u2014 New footage shows what an expert investigative group says is likely an American Tomahawk missile…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":644045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[66557,9600,38095,69,57,83,3461,6087,3462,8132,50,6986,80,273893,67,370,132,68,96,93,107],"class_list":["post-644044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-abraham-lincoln","tag-activism","tag-ap-investigations","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-iran","tag-iran-government","tag-iran-war","tag-israel-government","tag-military-and-defense","tag-news","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-politics","tag-trevor-ball","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-war-and-unrest","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116201328944561383","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}