Trump administration stays silent on Iran school strike that killed children

Democratic senators led by Kirsten Gillibrand and Jack Reed demanded on July 13 that the Pentagon disclose within a week its investigation into the Feb. 28 missile strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, Hormozgan province, in southeastern Iran. The attack came on the first day of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran and left a school destroyed and children among the dead, with casualty estimates ranging from at least 156 killed, including 120 children, to more than 175 dead in later counts.

The Trump administration has not publicly explained who approved the strike or released the Pentagon’s findings. A White House spokesperson said on March 10 that investigations were ongoing and that the Defense Department would issue a full report, but more than four months later no public findings had been released. Senators asked for an unclassified version of the report, a briefing for Congress and a plan to prevent a similar mistake.

An initial internal U.S. military investigation indicated U.S. forces were likely responsible. Satellite imagery, open-source mapping, interviews and Pentagon sources showed the military had evidence almost immediately that the school site had been hit. The blast struck both the school and nearby buildings in an adjacent Revolutionary Guard compound.

Amnesty International’s evidence showed the school building itself was directly struck and that the U.S. failed to take feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm. Human Rights Watch found that the United States was responsible and that outdated targeting data contributed to the strike. UN experts, through the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned the attack as a grave assault on children and education and called for an independent investigation.