America's Deadliest Civilian Strike in Decades

The U.S. Bombed a Girls' School

On the morning of February 28, children at the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab, Iran, were changing class periods when a Tomahawk cruise missile tore through the two-story building. The explosion collapsed the roof and destroyed more than half the structure. According to Iranian state media at least 168 children and 14 teachers were killed. Witnesses described pulling severed limbs from the rubble.

The preliminary findings from an ongoing U.S. military investigation point to a targeting error rooted in intelligence that was more than a decade out of date. U.S. Central Command officers created target coordinates using outdated data provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency. The school and an adjacent Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval base had once shared the same compound, but satellite imagery confirms that by September 2016, a fence had divided the school from the military installation entirely. By August 2017, a soccer pitch was visible in the school's courtyard. Separate street entrances had been created so students could enter without passing through the base.

Nobody updated the file.

The U.S. is the only participant in the conflict known to use Tomahawk missiles. Munitions experts from Armament Research Services, the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, and the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation all reviewed geolocated video published by Iran's Mehr News Agency and concluded independently that the footage showed a Tomahawk strike hitting the compound adjacent to the school. Investigative groups Bellingcat and BBC Verify reached the same conclusion. Mark Cancian, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was direct about the question of Iranian Tomahawk possession: "Iran has none, though it has lots of missiles of different kinds."

That assessment did not reach the president.

One week after the strike, on March 7, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, "No. In my opinion and based on what I've seen, that was done by Iran. Because they are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions." Neither Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth nor U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz would back him up when pressed. Even Trump's own Pentagon chief declined to endorse the claim. U.S. Central Command characterized Trump's public comments as "inappropriate." A U.S. government official who reviewed satellite images of the school put it more plainly, telling The Intercept: "This is another instance of Trump lying and just talking out of his ass. This clearly was not a failed rocket from the IRGC base."

By March 9, at a press conference at his Doral golf resort, Trump had shifted his story. Rather than blaming a misfired Iranian weapon, he now suggested Iran had somehow acquired American Tomahawk missiles and used one to bomb its own school. "The Tomahawk, which is one of the most powerful weapons around, is sold and used by other countries," he told reporters. When pushed further, he claimed Iran "also has some Tomahawks" and "wish[es] they had more," adding: "But whether it's Iran or somebody else, the fact that a Tomahawk, a Tomahawk is very generic." New York Times White House correspondent Shawn McCreesh then asked the question the entire press pool had been sitting on: "You just suggested that Iran got its hands on a Tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war. But you're the only person in your government saying this. Even your defense secretary wouldn't say that when he was asked, standing over your shoulder on your plane on Saturday. Why are you the only person saying this?" Trump replied: "Because I just don't know enough about it."

That same week, Trump had also claimed on social media that "the regime in Iran has now confessed that the IRGC mistakenly bombed an Iranian school." Iran made no such confession. PolitiFact found the claim to be false. When the New York Times reported on March 11 that a preliminary Pentagon investigation had concluded U.S. forces were responsible for the strike, a reporter asked Trump directly whether he accepted responsibility. He said: "I don't know about it."

Hegseth said the U.S. "never targets civilian targets" and that an investigation was underway. Secretary of State Marco Rubio assured reporters that American forces "would not deliberately target a school." The Pentagon declined further comment, citing the ongoing investigation. Every senior official in the administration offered a slightly different version of the same answer, while the military's own preliminary findings moved steadily in one direction.

A panel of 18 independent experts from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said they were "alarmed" by the strike and emphasized that children must be protected from war. UNESCO called it a grave violation of international humanitarian law. The UN human rights chief flagged serious concerns about compliance with international law. Republican Senator John Kennedy, a Trump ally, broke from the administration line entirely. "We're investigating, but I'm not going to hide behind that. I think that it was a terrible, terrible mistake," Kennedy told CNN. "The kids are still dead."

Between 170 and 264 students were present in the school at the time of the strike, figures that differ between human rights organization Hengaw and Iran's Ministry of Education, respectively; most of them girls between seven and twelve years old. The school had attempted to close after strikes began elsewhere in the region. Parents could not reach their children in time.

The United States has not formally concluded responsibility. The investigation remains ongoing.

A country watching its president publicly contradict his own military, his own cabinet, and the forensic record, across multiple press conferences and with shifting explanations, is still waiting for someone in charge to say the obvious thing out loud.

@Santitos

@salinasmariasantos

Copyright © 2026 Maria Santos Salinas for FRONTeras.

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