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U.S. Military Likely Behind Deadly Feb. 28 Strike on Iranian School in Minab

U.S. Military Likely Behind Deadly Feb. 28 Strike on Iranian School in Minab
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U.S. military investigators quietly concluded that American forces were likely behind the Feb. 28 airstrike that obliterated a girls’ elementary school in southern Iran, killing at least 160 children and staff, even as President Donald Trump publicly insisted Iran bombed its own people politico +1. The blast in the coastal city of Minab marked the deadliest single incident for civilians since the U.S. and Israel launched their air campaign against Iran late last month nytimes +1.

The Shajareh (also reported as Shajarah Tayyebeh) elementary school was hit mid-morning during class hours, at roughly the same time U.S. cruise missiles and other munitions struck an adjacent Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval compound near the Strait of Hormuz nytimes +1. Iranian officials said between 165 and 175 people, most of them schoolgirls, were killed; satellite images later showed rows of freshly dug graves in Minab’s cemetery and mass funerals broadcast on state TV washingtonpost +1.

How Investigators Traced the Strike to U.S. Forces

A preliminary U.S. military investigation, disclosed anonymously to multiple outlets, found it “likely” that American forces carried out the strike as part of the first-wave attacks on IRGC facilities, though the Pentagon has not released a formal public finding politico +1. Open-source investigations by major news organizations used satellite imagery and geolocated videos to map at least eight impact sites across the military compound, including direct hits on the school building inside a walled complex shared with the base nytimes +2.

Time-stamped commercial satellite images showed the school intact around 10:23 a.m. on Feb. 28, and destroyed by late morning, matching witness accounts that a salvo hit around 10:45 a.m. local time nytimes +1. Human Rights Watch said the pattern of rooftop penetrations and building collapses was consistent with guided munitions, not an errant rocket, and urged that the attack be investigated as a potential war crime wsj. U.S. officials have maintained that “the United States would not deliberately target a school,” in the words of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while acknowledging an inquiry into possible targeting failures was under way timesofisrael.

Clashing Narratives and Intensifying Calls for Accountability

Iran’s government accused the U.S. and Israel of deliberately bombing the school and told the United Nations that 165 girls were “martyred,” demanding international action washingtonpost. Tehran cut internet access nationwide by an estimated 98 percent after the strikes, sharply limiting independent reporting from the scene wsj. UN human rights officials and education agencies condemned the incident as “a grave assault on children” and called for a prompt, independent investigation, warning that an attack on a functioning school during class hours raises the “most serious concerns” under the laws of war washingtonpost +1.

Publicly, the Trump administration has rejected any U.S. culpability. Trump told reporters he believed the bombing was “done by Iran,” without offering evidence, even as his own military’s internal assessment pointed toward American responsibility politico +1. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said only that the Pentagon was “investigating” and insisted U.S. forces “never target civilian targets” politico +1. Israel’s military said it was not aware of an Israeli strike linked to Minab, while rights groups argued that whatever the final attribution, the burden lies on the states conducting the wider campaign to explain how a crowded primary school became a kill zone wsj.

The Bigger Picture

The Minab school bombing has become a defining test of accountability in a fast-escalating war that has already killed more than 1,000 civilians across Iran and drawn in regional powers thedailybeast. With U.S. investigators privately pointing to American responsibility, yet political leaders publicly deflecting blame, pressure is mounting from UN officials and rights groups for an independent, international inquiry that could scrutinize targeting decisions at the highest levels politico +2. How Washington responds—by acknowledging error and compensating victims, or by standing by ambiguous denials—may shape not only the trajectory of the Iran conflict, but also global norms on the protection of schools and children in wartime.