US at fault for deadly missile strike on Iran school, Report

NEW YORK, Mar 12 (APP): A preliminary United States military investigation has determined that US was responsible for a deadly Tomahawk missile strike on an Iranian elementary school in February that killed scores of children, according to the report in The New York Times.

Quoting unnamed US officials and others familiar with the initial findings, the newspaper said the investigation has concluded that the strike on 28 February on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school building was the result of a targeting mistake by the US military planners.

Iranian officials had claimed death toll from the attack as at least 175 people, the majority of them children, in one of the worst and most shocking American strikes producing civilian fatalities in recent memory.

The findings appear to confirm assertions by Tehran, which had produced video footage of the US missile strike and fragments of US-made missile parts, despite President Donald Trump’s efforts to suggest that Iran had hit the building.

According to the report, the inquiry, which has yet to be completed, has found that officers at US Central Command created the target coordinates for the strike using obsolete data provided by the Defence Intelligence Agency.

While independent analysis of the strike had pointed strongly to US culpability, the Trump administration has continued with a policy of evasion around the attack that hit the school in the town of Minab close to buildings used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) naval forces.

On Saturday, Trump declared that Iran was responsible for the school bombing. “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.” The president presented no evidence for his claim.

His assertion has not been repeated by spokespeople for the US military, who have said only that they are “investigating” the bombing.

But the Trump administration’s efforts to avoid responsibility for the attack continued on Wednesday, with the Pentagon saying in a five-word statement to the to the press: “The incident is under investigation.”

An official at the US military’s Central Command said: “It would be inappropriate to comment given the incident is under investigation.”

Historic satellite imagery shows that while the school’s building was once part of the wider IRGC complex, it has been walled off from the barracks for at least nine years. It has had clear visual indications that it is an educational facility, including colourful murals on the walls and small sports playing fields – both visible in some satellite imagery.

There is no indication that the school was a military-use building at the time of the strike, the report said.