The bombing of an Iranian elementary school in Minab on Saturday, which killed at least 165 people, was the result of precision strikes carried out by US and Israeli forces on the first day of Operation Epic Fury.
According to US media reports, the school building was damaged by a precision strike conducted simultaneously with attacks on an adjacent naval base operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The New York Times reported that official claims of US forces targeting naval sites near the Strait of Hormuz, where the IRGC base is located, suggest they were the most likely perpetrators of the strike on the school.
Meanwhile, CBC News concluded that the damage resulted from a precision airstrike on a military complex adjacent to the building, noting that the structure was part of an IRGC base.
“CBC’s visual investigations team reviewed and verified multiple videos from the scene showing several distinct smoke plumes, indicating the area was hit more than once. This was confirmed by satellite imagery released Wednesday by Planet Labs, which revealed multiple impact craters within the complex,” the report added.
“It was precise targeting of a military facility for the IRGC,” said a military researcher at Factnameh, an Iranian fact-checking group based in Toronto, speaking to CBS.
“According to satellite images, the impacts show a pattern consistent with precision-guided munitions … there shouldn’t be any mistakes,” the researcher added.
The researcher also noted that the fact a school was struck indicates “either the fault of a weapons system or a huge intelligence failure by CENTCOM.”
However, neither the United States nor Israel has officially claimed responsibility for the strike, and both governments have said they are investigating reports of civilian harm. US officials, including the Pentagon and State Department, have stressed that American forces do not deliberately target civilian infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child stressed that children must be protected during the conflict in the Middle East, highlighting the alleged airstrike on the Iranian school.
“The committee is alarmed by reports of strikes on civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, which have injured and traumatised children, claiming many young lives,” it said.
“This is a reminder that children are among the most vulnerable in armed conflicts and must never be treated as collateral damage,” the committee added.
According to state media, Iran held funerals on Tuesday for at least 165 people, including students, killed in the alleged strike. State television carried images showing large crowds of mourners in Minab weeping over bodies wrapped in white shrouds.
Tensions between Iran and the joint US-Israel forces entered their seventh day after the latter launched an airstrike that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The conflict has reportedly killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 70 in Lebanon, and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials from those countries.
