The Pentagon has accepted responsibility for a missile strike on a girls’ school in Iran that killed 168 students and 14 teachers, according to a preliminary report published in New York Times.
According to the Pentagon’s preliminary investigation, the attack on Shajra Tayba Primary School in Minab on 28 February was carried out based on outdated intelligence.
Central Command created the target coordinates for the strike using outdated data provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency, people briefed on the investigation said.
US forces had been targeting a nearby Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) installation, but satellite images revealed that the school and the military facility had previously been part of the same compound. A separation barrier and a separate entrance for the school were added in 2016.
The report, first highlighted by the New York Times, concluded that faulty information from a US defense intelligence agency led to the tragic error. Trump has repeatedly claimed that Iran was responsible for the strike, despite mounting evidence to the contrary
US Central Command refused to comment on the preliminary findings of the inquiry.
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US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other US officials have stressed that the United States would not deliberately target civilians.
Deliberately attacking a school or hospital or any other civilian structure would likely be a war crime under international humanitarian law.
Images of the girls’ funeral were shown on Iranian state television last week. Their small coffins were draped with Iranian flags and passed from a truck across a large crowd towards the grave site.