Outdated targeting data may have led to a deadly US missile strike on an Iranian girls’ school, a preliminary inquiry has found.
The Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in the town of Minab was struck by a Tomahawk missile on February 28, killing 175. The victims were mainly children aged seven to 12.
It’s understood the building may have been part of a neighbouring Islamic Revolutionary Guard Navy compound at one time but was converted into a school a decade ago.
Yesterday, military investigators reportedly found the US was ‘likely’ responsible for the attack and pointed out that Israel was involved in locating targets.
Officials stressed that the findings are preliminary and that there are important unanswered questions about why the outdated information had not been double checked.
On Saturday, President Donald Trump blamed Iran for the strike, telling reporters: ‘In my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran. They’re very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran.’
When challenged over the inquiry’s initial findings yesterday, he said: ‘I don’t know about that.’
Beth Sanner, former Deputy Director of National Intelligence, described the strike as ‘a major, major mistake’.
She said ‘target packages’ containing imagery allow the military to determine whether a site is worth attacking.
‘These [packages] can be very old and they need to be refreshed,’ she said. ‘But this school was around for 10 years, so this is a major, major mistake.
‘It should have been caught, it should have been refreshed, and frankly, I feel terrible for the people who provided that information, but we need to learn from this and make sure we’re using AI and all the tools to prevent it from happening again.’
She added that while it was a ‘huge, horrible tragedy’, the US military and intelligence community try ‘very, very hard’ to keep data updated, ‘but mistakes happen and lives are lost’.
Republican US Senator John Kennedy apologised for the ‘horrible mistake’, saying it was the sort of thing Russia does.
‘We’re investigating, but I’m not going to hide behind that,’ he said. ‘I think that it was a terrible, terrible mistake.
‘The investigation may prove me wrong, I hope so. But the kids are still dead, and I think it was a horrible, horrible mistake.
‘When you make a mistake, you ought to admit it. Most people understand no one’s perfect, but I don’t think our men and women who are fighting for us did it intentionally.’
Yesterday, 43 Democrat senators wrote to the US Department of Defence, calling the school attack ‘horrific’ and demanding answers.
Among them was Senator Richard Blumental, who said: ‘US responsibility for this tragedy is sickening and should prompt immediate release of the report, even if it’s preliminary. The American people need and deserve to know what happened and who’s accountable – including a public hearing.’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president would accept the inquiry’s final conclusion, adding it was ‘still ongoing’.
