New York Times: U.S. Responsible for Deadly Strike on Iran School that Killed 160, Mostly Girls
March 12th, 2026Via: Mint:
A Tomahawk missile strike on a school in southern Iran in February that reportedly killed more than 160 people, mostly children, was likely the result of a targeting mistake by the United States, according to a preliminary US military investigation cited in a report by the New York Times.
The report on 11 March, quoting unnamed US officials and others familiar with the initial findings, said the initial investigation has concluded that the strike on 28 February on the Shajarah Tayyebeh school building was the result of a targeting mistake by the US military planners.
The NYT report comes days after a CBS report found that the United States may have been responsible for the bombing of a girls’ school in Iran. Citing sources, the report said that preliminary US assessment has suggested that Washington is “likely” responsible for the attack, adding that it may have hit the school in error, possibly due to the use of outdated intelligence inputs.
The US military was conducting strikes on an adjacent Iranian base, of which the school building was formerly a part, the preliminary investigation found, according to the NYT report.
Officers at US Central Command created the target coordinates for the strike using outdated data provided by the Defence Intelligence Agency, people briefed on the investigation quoted in the report said.
The findings are preliminary, and some unanswered questions about why the outdated information had not been double-checked remain.
