Video appears to show U.S. missile striking Iranian school compound : NPR

Screenshots of a cruise missile hitting a compound where an Iranian girls’ school was hit, killing around 175 people.

Screenshots by Geoff Brumfiel for NPR/Mehr News on X

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Screenshots by Geoff Brumfiel for NPR/Mehr News on X

A new video released by Iranian state media shows what appears to be a U.S. cruise missile hitting a compound where about 175 Iranian students and staff were killed at a girls’ school just over a week ago.

The seven-second video was published by Mehr News, an official Iranian news agency. It shows the missile hitting a building inside a fortified compound – likely a health clinic that was also inside the perimeter of what was at one time an Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval base.

The strike appears to have taken place shortly after the girls’ school was hit. In the new video, smoke is already visibly rising from the part of the compound where the school was located. State media put the death toll in the attack at between 165 and 180, many of them students.

Although the quality of the video makes it difficult to precisely identify the munition, the missile appears to match a Tomahawk cruise missile, according to Jeffrey Lewis, professor of global security at Middlebury College. The United States is the only country known to have Tomahawk missiles, and U.S. officials say the military was operating in the country’s south at the time of the strike.

“The first shooters at sea were Tomahawks released by the U.S. Navy,” Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a news conference Monday after the strike.

Speaking aboard Air Force One on Saturday, President Trump blamed Iran for the school bombing.

“From what I’ve seen, I think it was done by Iran,” Trump said. “Because they are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no precision. This was done by Iran.”

Lewis said, however, that the missile shown in the video did not appear to match known Iranian-made cruise missile designs.

NPR was able to verify the location where the video was filmed in a housing development under construction across the street from the precinct. Many details, including the sign at the entrance to the clinic, matched known details about the compound where the school was located. The video was first geotagged by online research group Bellingcat.

The short video seemed authentic. Although AI-generated videos have been posted online during the latest conflict with Iran, they generally do not contain details about a specific location unless it is already well-known, such as a major landmark. Many also contain physical errors or other inaccuracies when depicting a missile or rocket attack.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to NPR’s request for comment on the video.

NPR was the first to report satellite images from the company Planet suggesting that several buildings, including the clinic, were hit in what appears to be a precision strike that resulted in deaths at the school. A total of seven buildings were hit in the strike on the compound, which was at one point a naval base of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).

The base, located in the southeastern town of Minab, appeared to be a relatively minor installation. NPR was able to find video shot at the base during a 2010 military exercise, showing members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards flying an Ababil-3 drone from an airfield directly across the street from the compound.

But historic satellite images showed little activity at the airfield in the years following that demonstration. NBC News reported that local officials say the base has been abandoned for more than a decade, but NPR has not been able to independently verify these claims.

The school was separated from the compound by a wall between 2013 and 2016, according to satellite images. Satellite images also show that the airstrip was removed in 2024. Online postings from a local construction company verified by NPR show that the land where the runway once stood was being turned into a housing development. The clinic was walled off between 2023 and 2024 and opened in 2025, according to a local press report from the Fars-Hormozgan news agency, reviewed by NPR.

The opening said the site still had ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. According to reports, the clinic was opened by IRGC leader Hossein Salami, who was killed in an Israeli strike later that year. A photo emerged showing Salami cutting a ribbon at the clinic.

Lewis said it was possible the school and clinic were hit because of outdated targeting information.

Speaking alongside Trump on Saturday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the United States continues to investigate what happened at the school. “We are certainly investigating,” he said. “But the only party that targets civilians is Iran.”

NPR’s RAD team contributed to this report.

Contact Geoff Brumfiel on Signal at gbrumfiel.13