Military Investigation Confirms: U.S. Responsible for Iranian School Bombing, Leaving 175 (Mostly Children) Dead
Get ready for “war crime” to start trending all over social media, thanks to new reporting from The New York Times, which on Wednesday published information from (unnamed) U.S. officials and military personnel, confirming what had already increasingly seemed like a certainty: That the United States is responsible for the deadly Tomahawk missile strike that leveled an Iranian elementary school in the first salvos of the ongoing Iran War. That strike killed at least 175 people according to Iranian officials, with the majority of the dead being children who attended the school. Our own ongoing military investigation, in its preliminary findings, assigned responsibility to the United States, laying the blame on “outdated data” on the target that was provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency, according to “people briefed on the investigation” as reported by NYT.
This is, suffice to say, a big moment for Trump’s nascent quagmire in the Middle East, and would represent one of the most deadly and shameful failures in American military intelligence in recent memory–it’s little wonder that neither the U.S. nor Israel wanted to talk about this particular strike after it happened. Trump, likewise, deployed the Kristi Noem playbook in the aftermath of the strike, irresponsibly claiming that it had been the fault of Iran’s own munitions despite the military’s investigation not yet having produced any findings. Now he’ll either be forced to eat his own words, or dig his heels in and claim that Pete Hegseth’s military is lying in its findings, which are corroborated by media analysis of the strikes. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed on Tuesday that Trump would “accept the findings of the investigation,” but that means nothing, considering how frequently she says one thing and the President subsequently does the opposite.
Q: Why did President Trump say yesterday that Iran may have Tomahawk missiles when there are only other 3 US allies that have them?
LEAVITT: The president said yesterday he will accept the conclusion of this investigation by the Dept of War
(Not an answer!)
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) Mar 10, 2026 at 2:50 PM
The Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school in the town of Minab was unfortunately located on ground adjacent to buildings in use by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Navy, and the building was indeed once part of that military compound. At some point between 2013 and 2016, however, it was renovated–watchtowers were removed, public entrances were opened, play areas and sports fields were installed, and it became a school. Before the bombs fell, its walls stood out with their bright blue and pink paint. The question is why deadly targeting decisions were made by the U.S. military based on imaging and data that was presumably at least a decade old. As The New York Times report put it:
When the Defense Intelligence Agency’s targeting data is older, intelligence officers are expected to use imagery or data from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to update and verify the target. While Mr. Trump has made targeting Iran’s navy a top priority of the war to prevent it from interfering with global commerce in the region, historically it is not been a top priority of the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has focused more on Iran’s missiles and other priorities like China and North Korea.
The suggestion here appears to be that because military intelligence was more concerned with Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities, it negligently allowed knowledge of other potential targets to lapse. At the same time, it would have been the responsibility of officers at Central Command to check the information they receive from the Defense Intelligence Agency to verify that these are valid targets. Notably, the U.S. government has at no point even attempted to make an argument that the school was a valid military target because it was being used by the IRGC Navy–instead they’ve largely refrained from commenting, or in the case of Trump flat-out stated that someone other than us bombed the school. Somehow, we wouldn’t be surprised to see messaging from the MAGA Twitter Bot Horde suddenly pivot to claiming that the school was a valid target after all, because it secretly contained weapons or soldiers in addition to dozens or hundreds of kids.
Q: A new report says that a military investigation has found that the US struck the school in Iran. As commander in chief, do you take responsibility?
TRUMP: For what?
Q: A strike on the school in Iran
TRUMP: I don't know about it
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) Mar 11, 2026 at 12:42 PM
Lest we forget, over the weekend, Trump had this to say about the strike, laying the blame on Iran in no uncertain terms: “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.” Trump would go on to claim on Sunday that Iran also had access to Tomahawk missiles, despite there being absolutely no evidence that this was the case.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, standing next to Trump during the above lies about dead children, has been notably less willing to speak on the matter, referring all questions only to the continuing investigation on the school strike. Said investigation remains ongoing, as the military attempts to answer the question/determine the fall guy for why the outdated information was supplied, and who failed to verify it before the deadly strike was ordered. Perhaps then there will be some sliver of accountability, but whatever the punishment is, it can hardly be called equal to the loss of 175 innocent lives. This tragedy should haunt the ongoing Iran War through its conclusion and far beyond.