On the first day of the U.S. war in Iran, a missile strike on an Iranian girls’ school killed 175 people, including many children. A Reuters report noted that U.S. military investigators “believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for” the deadly incident.
The Reuters report dovetailed with a detailed analysis from The New York Times that indicated the school building “was severely damaged by a precision strike that occurred at the same time as attacks on an adjacent naval base operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.” On Monday, a related Times report elaborated, “A newly released video adds to the evidence that an American missile likely hit an Iranian elementary school.”
The standard line from administration officials was to refrain from comment until investigators made an assessment. As MS NOW reported, investigators’ findings are coming into focus:
A preliminary investigation by the Pentagon found U.S. forces bombed a school in Iran due to dated targeting information that identified the building as part of an adjacent military complex, a U.S. official familiar with the matter told MS NOW. The findings were first reported by The New York Times.
According to The New York Times’ account, U.S. officials relied on dated information that indicated the school had been part of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard base, but had been turned into the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school several years ago. The same report added that the outdated data was provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency to U.S. Central Command officers who created the targets for the Tomahawk missile strikes.
If these preliminary assessments hold, the strike will rank among the worst cases of U.S.-caused civilian casualties in a generation.
Shortly after these revelations reached the public, a reporter asked Donald Trump whether he’s prepare to take responsibility for what happened. After initially suggesting he didn’t hear the question, the president eventually replied, “I don’t know about it.”
It’s an open question as to whether Trump was being truthful with that answer, but Trump has certainly had quite a bit to say about the matter in recent days.
On Saturday, one week after the deadly strike, a reporter asked whether the U.S. was responsible for the horrific incident. The president replied, “No. In my opinion and based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran. … We think it was done by Iran.”
At a press conference on Monday, Trump addressed the same subject and again suggested that Iran might have launched the strike, claiming that Iran “has some” Tomahawk missiles. (It does not.)
A day later, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Trump would accept the results of the U.S. investigation into the incident.
That commitment is about to be put to the test.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
