CNN- The US military accidentally struck an Iranian elementary school, in an attack that state media said killed at least 168 children and 14 teachers, likely due to outdated information about a nearby naval base, according to two sources briefed on the preliminary findings of an ongoing military investigation.
The February 28 strike on the Shajareh Tayyiba school in Minab occurred while the US military was conducting strikes on a neighboring Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) facility, the initial investigation found.
US Central Command created target coordinates for the strike using outdated information provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency, which contributed to the mistake, the sources briefed on the preliminary findings told CNN.
In response to a request for comment, a Defense Intelligence Agency spokesperson said, “The incident is under investigation; we defer to the Pentagon for further comment.” A spokesperson for US Central Command also declined to comment on the preliminary findings, citing the ongoing investigation.
Satellite imagery from 2013 showed that the school and the IRGC base were once part of the same compound. But images from 2016 revealed that a fence had been erected to separate the school from the rest of the base, and that a separate entrance to the school had been built. In December 2025, imagery showed dozens of people in the school’s courtyard apparently playing.
The New York Times first reported details of the preliminary investigation, which remains ongoing.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he was unaware of a New York Times report that an ongoing military investigation had found, at least preliminarily, that the United States was responsible for a deadly strike on a school in southern Iran.
“I don’t know about that,” Trump said when asked by CNN’s Kristen Holmes about the Times story and whether he accepted responsibility.
The initial investigative findings raise additional questions about what led to the strike on the school and who was ultimately responsible.
Multiple sources told CNN the preliminary investigation is consistent with what had become increasingly obvious as new evidence continued to emerge publicly in recent days: The US military conducted the strike.
Video geolocated by CNN as filmed from a nearby construction site and released by Mehr News, a semi-official Iranian news agency, shows a munition that experts said is consistent with an American BGM or UGM-109 Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) striking a location inside the IRGC base on February 28. As the camera pans to the right, a huge plume of smoke can be seen from the direction of the Shajareh Tayyiba school.
Trump had previously asserted that Iran might be to blame for the strike, though when pressed on why no one in his own administration seemed to be publicly supporting that claim, he responded, “Because I just don’t know enough about it.”
In this aerial photo released by the Iranian Press Center, mourners dig graves during a funeral in Minab, Iran, on Tuesday, March 3. Iranian officials say at least 168 young students were killed on Saturday morning when a strike hit the Shajaba Tayyiba Girls’ elementary school in Minab. The school sits about 200 feet from an Iranian military base. (Iranian Press Center/AFP/Getty Images) Brett Iranian Press Center/AFP/Getty Images
“As the New York Times acknowledges in its own reporting, the investigation is still ongoing,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday the strike will be “thoroughly” investigated, adding the US has “attempted in every way possible to avoid civilian casualties.”
He accused Iran, meanwhile, of targeting civilians “indiscriminately.”
Missile debris that Iranian officials claim was recovered from the deadly strikes appeared to be from an American Tomahawk cruise missile, a CNN analysis previously found.
Four photographs of the fragments were shared on Telegram by Iran’s state broadcaster, IRIB, with the caption claiming they were remnants from the strike. It was not possible to confirm whether the fragments, pictured on a table in front of the ruined school building, were from the school strike, a strike on the neighboring Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval base or elsewhere.
They do, however, appear to be consistent with a US-made Tomahawk cruise missile, according to a CNN review and expert analysis.
The Pentagon classifies the missiles as precision-guided munitions. Multiple buildings at the base appear to have been struck by precision missiles.
Trump pushed back against the suggestion the US had carried out the strike in a news conference Monday in which he claimed Iran also had Tomahawk missiles. The cruise missiles, produced by US defense contractor Raytheon, are held by only a small group of US allies authorized to purchase them. Even Israel, one of Washington’s closest partners, does not possess them, and multiple munitions experts confirmed to CNN that Iran does not have them either.
CNN’s Christian Edwards and Kristen Holmes contributed to this story
Advertise with the mоѕt vіѕіtеd nеwѕ ѕіtе іn Antigua!
We offer fully customizable and flexible digital marketing packages.
Contact us at [email protected]
It is america, land of de-mock-cry-see, that’s all it takes, they have endorse the killing of babies in Palestine so what so different with america performing the surgery of death of these school toddlers? Am sure trump is saying the same like netanyahu that these young school girls and toddlers are animals and not human, oh what a great land america is. We all should want to go there and emulate them.
The Caribbean political leaders should endorse the war on drugs in the Caribbean and sign a agreement of reciprocity and strike these power yacht boats with Americans or who ever they are and declare them as drug terrorists.
Evil is reigning, and the world is now on the verge of stumbling in a major world war.
People of colour and differing fsiths are being slaughtered by the thousands; and this latest atrocity of innocent school children being bombed by American Tomahawk missiles (which I believe the US rarely sells to other countries) is an utter abomination.
MANKIND HAS LOST THE PLOT!
Who is going to be held accountable for this wanton slaughter of these school girls and their teachers?
The Iranian government killed thousands of their own citizens during the last set of protests and nothing was said.
In war these things happen. Why was that school built so close to a military base. Is it common practice to place a school so close to a base?
You guys blame America for everything.
@Brixtonian the Iranian regime has killed far more people of colour and fellow Muslims than the US.
By the way Islam isn’t like other religions. Look at what is happening to most European countries, Burkina Faso, Nigeria etc due to the influx of the Islamists.
America isn’t perfect, but when we Antiguans need to run from our homeland it’s still the first choice for most of us.
They get away with anything simply because they are the United States of America. The only country that can blow small boats and people to bits in the Pacific and in the Caribbean and not a dog bark. No accountability whatsoever.
@Right Winger well said. HAMAS, HISBOLLAH AND HOUTHIS are all proxys of IRAN the axis of TERROISM. They use their people as HUMAN SHIELD it was demonstrated in GAZA building underground tunnels under hospitals they are animals have no value for their own people.
I’m no supporter of terrorism whichever regime or country it comes from.
As an avid humanitarian I note that the loudest noises comes from those who are way to elderly to fight; and in addition has anyone else noticed that these same said WARMONGERS never commit there sons (or daughters) to enrol to fight for their countries?
Funny that…🤔
Hellooooo..Black Antiguans…Why you dont talk about how many black girls are being murdered, raped in a daily basic in Africa by others black fellas? Helloooo..nobody is there..just pointing finger when USA is involved but when others countries do worse..Like same Iranian regime does, no Press, no new headline, nothing..Ohh stop being hypocrites..At the end you don’t care at all who died or not in war conflicts around the world.
@Smith What about HAITI? A CARICOM MEMBER STATE.ALLEGED MASSACRES:
The G9 led by JIMI CHERIZIER AKA “BARBEQUE” is the leader of the revolutionary forces of the G9 family and allies G9 has allegedly been responsible for numerous massacres of civilians in Haiti. These include a May 2020 massacre across various neighborhoods across Port-au-Prince that killed 6 to 34 people, an August–September 2020 massacre that left 22 dead, and an April 2021 massacre after an attempted takeover of Bel Air in Port-au-Prince.
The National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH), a United States National Endowment for Democracy funded, self-described human rights group based in Haiti, reported on the 2020–21 massacre in Bel Air allegedly committed by G9. Eighty-one people were killed in total. Thirty-six people were killed from August to December 2020 and 45 people from March to May 2021. 18 people were left missing. A massacre in Cité Soleil from January to May 2021, which the RNDDH alleges was done by the G9 but the G9 denies, killed 44 people and left seven missing. Human rights groups and victims have described the G9’s tactics to include random killing of civilians, systematic rape, looting and torching villages, kidnapping, dismemberment and more.
HAITI a CARICOM member state, CARICOM countries need to be laser focused and deploy their military army and fight the fight with “BARBEQUE” and free the HAITIANS. Instead of focusing on the war in IRAN which is approximately 11,930 kilometers away from HAITI.
Comments are closed.