Images taken near Iranian school hit in deadly strikes show fragments of U.S.-made missile
More than 170 people, including many children, were killed in the February 28 strikes on the Minab school, according to Iranian officials.
President Donald Trump issued his latest suggestion regarding Iranian involvement in the attack hours after the release of a video, geotagged by NBC News, that appeared to show an American Tomahawk striking an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps site near the school.
Asked by a reporter on Monday why he was the only U.S. official to suggest Iran was responsible, Trump replied: “Because I just don’t know enough about it.”
“I think it’s something that I’m told is under investigation, but the Tomahawks are, are being used by others,” he said.
Appearing to refer to the incident, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the United States would investigate “where events occur that require investigation.” He added that “open source” was “not the place to determine what happened or didn’t happen.”
“We take things very, very seriously and investigate thoroughly, which takes time,” he said.
Asked about the images broadcast by Iranian official media, the Defense Ministry stressed its ongoing investigation.
Trump said Monday he would be “willing to live with” the results of the investigation examining who was responsible for the attack and how it happened.
But he insisted another party could be responsible, saying Iran itself “also has Tomahawks”, although the US, UK and Australia are the only countries known to have them, with Japan and the Netherlands also agreeing to buy them in recent years.
The Pentagon acknowledged using Tomahawk missiles in the war, posting online a photo and video of the USS Spruance firing a Tomahawk land-attack missile on February 28, the day the United States launched strikes against Iran, as well as the day the school was struck. It is unclear exactly which area the strike that hit the school might have targeted.
Meanwhile, Trump administration officials told members of Congress in a closed-door meeting last week that the United States had targeted the area where the school was struck, two U.S. officials told NBC News.
Administration officials also said their military partner, Israel, was not responsible for the school bombing, the two U.S. officials said, with the Israeli military saying it was not aware of any connection between its operations in Iran and the attack on the school.
The Trump administration’s preliminary findings show it is increasingly likely that a U.S. munition was used, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the investigation. The United States is still investigating whether the strikes were the result of bad intelligence or poor targeting, the sources said.
