The US navy by accident struck an Iranian elementary school, in an assault that state media mentioned killed not less than 168 youngsters and 14 academics, likely due to outdated details about a close-by naval base, in accordance to two sources briefed on the preliminary findings of an ongoing navy investigation.
The February 28 strike on the Shajareh Tayyiba school in Minab occurred whereas the US navy was conducting strikes on a neighboring Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) facility, the initial investigation discovered.
US Central Command created goal coordinates for the strike utilizing outdated data offered by the Defense Intelligence Agency, which contributed to the error, the sources briefed on the preliminary findings instructed NCS.
In response to a request for remark, a Defense Intelligence Agency spokesperson mentioned, “The incident is under investigation; we defer to the Pentagon for further comment.” A spokesperson for US Central Command additionally declined to remark on the preliminary findings, citing the continuing investigation.
Satellite imagery from 2013 confirmed that the school and the IRGC base were once part of the same compound. But photographs from 2016 revealed {that a} fence had been erected to separate the school from the remainder of the bottom, and {that a} separate entrance to the school had been constructed. In December 2025, imagery confirmed dozens of individuals in the school’s courtyard apparently taking part in.
The New York Times first reported particulars of the preliminary investigation, which stays ongoing.
President Donald Trump mentioned Wednesday that he was unaware of a New York Times report that an ongoing navy investigation had discovered, not less than preliminarily, that the United States was answerable for a lethal strike on a school in southern Iran.
“I don’t know about that,” Trump mentioned when requested by NCS’s Kristen Holmes concerning the Times story and whether or not he accepted accountability.
The initial investigative findings elevate extra questions on what led to the strike on the school and who was finally accountable.
Multiple sources instructed NCS the preliminary investigation is in step with what had turn out to be more and more apparent as new proof continued to emerge publicly in latest days: The US navy carried out the strike.
Video geolocated by NCS as filmed from a close-by building web site and launched by Mehr News, a semi-official Iranian information company, shows a munition that experts said is consistent with an American BGM or UGM-109 Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) hanging a location contained in the IRGC base on February 28. As the digital camera pans to the best, an enormous plume of smoke will be seen from the course of the Shajareh Tayyiba school.
Trump had beforehand asserted that Iran is likely to be to blame for the strike, although when pressed on why nobody in his personal administration appeared to be publicly supporting that declare, he responded, “Because I just don’t know enough about it.”
“As the New York Times acknowledges in its own reporting, the investigation is still ongoing,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt instructed NCS.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mentioned on Tuesday the strike shall be “thoroughly” investigated, including the US has “attempted in every way possible to avoid civilian casualties.”
He accused Iran, in the meantime, of concentrating on civilians “indiscriminately.”
Missile particles that Iranian officers declare was recovered from the lethal strikes appeared to be from an American Tomahawk cruise missile, a NCS evaluation beforehand discovered.
Four pictures of the fragments have been shared on Telegram by Iran’s state broadcaster, IRIB, with the caption claiming they have been remnants from the strike. It was not potential to verify whether or not the fragments, pictured on a desk in entrance of the ruined school constructing, have been from the school strike, a strike on the neighboring Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval base or elsewhere.
They do, nevertheless, seem to be in step with a US-made Tomahawk cruise missile, in accordance to a NCS evaluation and skilled evaluation.
The Pentagon classifies the missiles as precision-guided munitions. Multiple buildings on the base seem to have been struck by precision missiles.
Trump pushed again in opposition to the suggestion the US had carried out the strike in a information convention Monday in which he claimed Iran additionally had Tomahawk missiles. The cruise missiles, produced by US protection contractor Raytheon, are held by solely a small group of US allies approved to buy them. Even Israel, one in every of Washington’s closest companions, doesn’t possess them, and a number of munitions specialists confirmed to NCS that Iran doesn’t have them both.
NCS’s Christian Edwards and Kristen Holmes contributed to this story