The devastating strike on a girls’ elementary school in the southern Iranian city of Minab has become one of the most disturbing and controversial incidents in the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran. What should have been an ordinary school day for hundreds of young students instead ended in catastrophe when a powerful explosion destroyed the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ primary school on February 28. According to reports from Iranian authorities, the attack killed at least 175 people, the overwhelming majority of them children aged between seven and twelve, along with fourteen teachers.
The scale of the tragedy has shocked observers around the world and triggered fierce debate about who bears responsibility. At the center of the controversy is US President Donald Trump, who has publicly denied that American forces were involved in the strike. Instead, he suggested that the destruction may have been caused by an Iranian missile that malfunctioned or veered off course.
Speaking to reporters, Trump stated that, “in my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran,” arguing that Iranian weapons systems lack precision and frequently miss their intended targets. His comments were quickly echoed in part by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who said that the incident was still under investigation while insisting that “the only side that targets civilians is Iran.”
Yet Trump’s claim stands in stark contrast to the findings of several major Western news organizations. Investigative reporting conducted by the Associated Press, CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post has pointed to the likelihood that the strike was carried out by US forces during a broader wave of bombardments targeting facilities associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
These investigations relied on satellite imagery, video footage, and open-source intelligence analysis to reconstruct the events surrounding the attack. According to these reports, the damage pattern visible at the school site appears consistent with the type of munitions used in American airstrikes rather than an errant missile fired by Iran itself.
Further complicating the official narrative, Reuters reported on March 6 that two US officials acknowledged privately that American military investigators believe US forces were likely responsible for the strike. While they emphasized that the investigation remains ongoing and no final conclusion has been formally announced, the admission underscores the growing gap between the White House’s public statements and the assessments circulating within parts of the US government.
The Minab strike has already been described as the deadliest single incident of the war launched on February 28, when the United States and Israel began coordinated attacks against Iranian military targets. The campaign, which has been dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” has involved a series of airstrikes against what Washington and Tel Aviv describe as strategic military facilities linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
However, critics argue that the scope of the bombardment has expanded far beyond military installations. Reports emerging from inside Iran indicate that a number of civilian sites-including residential areas, hospitals, and public infrastructure-have also been damaged or destroyed in the course of the attacks.
The destruction of the Shajareh Tayyebeh school has become a particularly powerful symbol of the human cost of the conflict. Images from the scene show collapsed classrooms, shattered windows, and desks buried beneath concrete and debris. Among the wreckage, rescuers reportedly discovered children’s backpacks, schoolbooks, and personal belongings scattered across the rubble-silent reminders of the lives abruptly cut short.
For families in Minab, the tragedy is not an abstract geopolitical debate but a deeply personal loss. Witnesses described scenes of overwhelming grief as parents searched desperately for their daughters among the ruins of the school building. Some collapsed in tears at the site of the explosion, clutching the few items that could be recovered from the wreckage.
In the days following the attack, Iran held mass funeral ceremonies for the victims. Hundreds of mourners gathered to accompany rows of small coffins through the streets, transforming the funerals into both moments of mourning and powerful political statements.
Iranian officials have strongly condemned the strike, accusing the United States and Israel of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi shared images on social media showing freshly dug graves prepared for the young victims. In his message, he wrote that the graves belonged to “more than 160 innocent young girls” killed in the bombing of their primary school.
Araghchi framed the attack as part of a broader pattern of violence against civilians across the region, drawing parallels with the suffering of civilians in Gaza and other conflict zones in the Middle East. His remarks were intended not only to condemn the attack but also to rally international opinion against the ongoing military campaign.
The United Nations has also voiced serious concern over the incident. In a statement condemning the strike, UN officials described it as “a grave assault on children, on education, and on the future of an entire community.” The organization reiterated the core principle of international humanitarian law that civilians-particularly children and educational institutions-must never be targeted in armed conflict.
The Minab tragedy raises profound questions about the nature of modern warfare and the credibility of official narratives during times of conflict. Governments engaged in military operations frequently attempt to shape public perception by controlling the flow of information, especially when civilian casualties are involved. Yet the proliferation of satellite imagery, independent journalism, and open-source investigation has made it increasingly difficult to conceal or distort events on the battlefield.
Even so, competing narratives can still cloud the truth. In high-stakes geopolitical conflicts, responsibility for civilian deaths is often disputed, delayed, or obscured by political messaging. Investigations can take months or years to reach definitive conclusions, leaving victims’ families trapped in uncertainty.
Beyond the immediate question of who launched the strike, the tragedy in Minab also exposes the broader dangers of modern aerial warfare. Military leaders frequently emphasize the precision of advanced weapons systems, arguing that technological improvements allow strikes to be conducted with minimal collateral damage. Yet incidents like the destruction of the Minab school reveal the limits of that promise.
When bombs fall in or near populated areas, even the most advanced targeting systems cannot eliminate the risk of catastrophic mistakes. Intelligence failures, technical malfunctions, or simple human error can turn a supposed military operation into a humanitarian disaster within seconds.
Ultimately, the most urgent issue raised by the Minab strike is accountability. International humanitarian law demands transparent investigations and credible mechanisms for determining responsibility when civilians are killed in war. Without such accountability, tragedies like this risk becoming normalized in an increasingly violent global landscape.
For the families of the victims, the political arguments unfolding in distant capitals offer little comfort. Their daughters left for school expecting a day of lessons and laughter. Instead, they became victims of a war that they neither chose nor understood.
As the investigation continues, the world must confront an uncomfortable but necessary question: will the deaths of more than a hundred schoolchildren lead to genuine accountability, or will the truth be lost amid the fog of war and political denial?
The answer will not bring back the children of Minab. But it will determine whether their deaths are remembered merely as another tragic statistic of war-or as a turning point that forced the international community to confront the human cost of its conflicts.
Mazen Al Khatib, a former Palestinian diplomate.
