Deadly Iran school strike on children still unexplained months later

A missile struck Shajareh Tayyebeh Girls’ School in Minab, Hormozgan province, on Feb. 28, killing mostly children in the deadliest strike in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. No final public accounting has been released four months after the attack. The Trump administration has not directly accepted responsibility or publicly disclosed the Pentagon’s findings, even though a U.S. official said the military had evidence almost immediately that the school had been hit.

The strike hit a primary school in southeastern Iran near the Strait of Hormuz around 10:45 a.m. local time while classes were underway. A UN special-procedures statement identified U.S. Tomahawk missiles as the weapons that struck the elementary school, and UN experts put the death toll at at least 165 schoolgirls. Other UN statements put the number of children killed at more than 160, while public accounts place the death toll at 168 or 175.

The Human Rights Council held an urgent debate on March 27 in Geneva after requests from Iran, China and Cuba. It was the 12th urgent debate in the council’s history. UN experts condemned the attack on the school in Minab and called for a prompt, impartial and thorough investigation, with findings made public and accountability for victims and their families. The committee on the rights of the child put the death toll from the bombing of the girls’ school at more than 160 children.

A special-procedures statement put the toll at more than 600 schools and educational facilities destroyed or severely damaged and over 230 students and teachers killed.