NEWS DESK (MNN); The United States was responsible for a Tomahawk missile strike that hit an elementary school in southern Iran due to a targeting error, according to a report published by The New York Times on Wednesday.
The report, citing US officials familiar with the investigation, said preliminary findings indicated that the strike carried out on February 28 mistakenly targeted the school building while US forces were conducting attacks on a nearby Iranian military installation.
According to the newspaper, the US military had been striking an adjacent base in the city of Minab that was once connected to the site where the school currently stands. Investigators believe the missile’s target coordinates were generated using outdated intelligence data, which led to the fatal mistake.
The report stated that the targeting information had been prepared by officers of the US Central Command using data supplied by the Defence Intelligence Agency. However, the data reportedly had not been updated to reflect that the building had been converted into a school facility.
Authorities in Washington are continuing to investigate how the outdated information was used in planning the strike and which officials failed to verify the accuracy of the data before the operation was carried out.
Iranian officials have said the strike on the elementary school in Minab resulted in the deaths of more than 150 people, though independent verification of the exact number of casualties has not been possible. International media organizations, including AFP, have reported that they were unable to access the location of the strike to independently confirm the circumstances surrounding the incident.
The New York Times report noted that the school building is located on the same block as several structures used by the naval wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. According to the report, the land where the school stands was originally part of the military base before the facility was separated from the base between 2013 and 2016 and later converted for civilian use.
Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump had suggested that Iran itself might have been responsible for the attack. However, he later said that he could accept whatever conclusion the ongoing investigation ultimately produces.
When reporters asked Trump about the newspaper’s findings on Wednesday, he responded that he was not aware of the report.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has blamed both the United States and Israel for the deadly strike, accusing them of targeting civilians.
Israel, however, has consistently denied any involvement in the attack or prior knowledge of the operation. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the United States would never intentionally target a school.
The investigation into the strike is still underway and officials have indicated that further details may emerge once the review of the military operation is completed.
