Investigation further suggests it was U.S. that struck Iranian school, killing 165

The investigative radical Bellingcat says the recently released video “appears to contradict” U.S. President Donald Trump's assertion that Iran was liable for an detonation astatine an Iranian schoolhouse that killed implicit 165 people astatine the commencement of the warfare raging successful the Mideast.

It comes arsenic mounting grounds points to U.S. culpability for the Feb. 28 strike, which deed a schoolhouse adjacent to a Revolutionary Guard basal successful Minab, Iran, successful the country's confederate Hormozgan Province. Experts interviewed by The Associated Press, citing outer representation analysis, accidental the schoolhouse was apt struck amid a speedy succession of bombs dropped connected the compound.

Israel-Iran war updates connected March 9, 2026

The video shared by Bellingcat is simply a three-second clip of a video taken the time the schoolhouse was struck and circulated Sunday (March 8, 2026) by Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency. The video shows a munition falling connected a building, sending a acheronian plume into the aerial that mingles with fume that apt came from earlier strikes connected the compound. Trevor Ball, a Bellingcat researcher, geolocated the video to a tract adjacent the school, thing besides done by the AP.

Ball identified the munition arsenic a Tomahawk cruise missile, which lone the U.S. is known to person successful this war. It's the archetypal grounds of a munition utilized successful the strike. U.S. Central Command has acknowledged utilizing Tomahawk missiles successful this warfare and adjacent released a photograph of the USS Spruance, portion of the USS Abraham Lincoln craft bearer radical located wrong scope of the school, firing a Tomahawk rocket connected Feb. 28.

Complicating immoderate appraisal of the incidental is the deficiency of images of weaponry fragments from the blast. No autarkic bureau has reached the tract during the warfare to investigate.

When asked by a newsman connected Saturday whether the U.S. was liable for the blast, which killed mostly children, Trump responded, without providing evidence: “No, successful my opinion, based connected what I've seen, that was done by Iran.” Trump added that Iran is “very inaccurate” with their munitions. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth rapidly chimed successful to accidental the US was investigating.

Janina Dill, an adept connected planetary instrumentality astatine Oxford University, wrote connected X that adjacent if the onslaught was a misidentification — and the attacker believed that the schoolhouse had been a portion of the neighbouring IRGC basal — it would inactive beryllium “a precise superior usurpation of planetary law.” “Attackers are nether an work to bash everything feasible to verify the presumption of the targeted object,” she wrote.

Several factors constituent to a US strike.

One is the launching of an appraisal of the incidental by the US military. According to the Pentagon's instructions connected processes for mitigating civilian harm, an appraisal is launched aft a radical of investigators makes an archetypal determination that the US subject whitethorn carnivore culpability.

A U.S. authoritative told the AP that the onslaught was apt U.S. The authoritative spoke anonymously due to the fact that they were not authorised to remark publically connected the delicate matter.

Another is the determination of the schoolhouse — adjacent to the Revolutionary Guard basal and adjacent to barracks for a naval unit. The U.S. subject has focused connected naval targets and acknowledged strikes successful the province, including 1 successful the vicinity of the school. Israel, which has denied conducting the strike, has focused connected areas of Iran person to Israel and hasn't reported immoderate strikes southbound of Isfahan, 800 kilometres (500 miles) away.

Neither the U.S. military's Central Command nor the Israeli subject instantly replied to requests for remark Monday from the AP connected Bellingcat's analysis.

Speaking astir the U.S. cognition astatine a property league connected March 2, Hegseth said: “America, careless of what alleged planetary institutions say, is unleashing the astir lethal and precise aerial powerfulness run successful history.” “No anserine rules of engagement,” helium said. “No politically close wars. We combat to win, and we don't discarded clip oregon lives.”