Iranians grieving over school missile strike express rage at U.S., Trump

But Qasemi said he felt a sense of comfort seeing the father of a girl still buried under rubble reassuring others.

Despite the proximity of the city of Minab and the province of Hormozgan to the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil passed daily before the war, the region is one of the poorest in Iran.

A Minab education official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the record, described the attack as part of what he sees as broader injustices perpetrated by the United States.

“The attack on Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab is a reminder of the crimes committed by the United States over the past 250 years,” he said. “From the murder of indigenous peoples on the American continent to the crimes committed in Vietnam. Wars leave nothing behind except the destruction of human lives, resources and infrastructure,” he said.

An Amnesty International investigation concluded that a US military guided weapon hit the school building directly, killing 168 people, including more than 100 children. The organization said the attack constituted “a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”

Separately, the Iranian military has been accused of targeting civilian sites across the Middle East.

Amnesty based its findings on an analysis of video and satellite imagery, as well as interviews with three people from outside the country with knowledge of the situation in Minab.

“This terrible attack on a school, with classrooms full of children, is a sickening illustration of the catastrophic and entirely predictable price that civilians are paying during this armed conflict. Schools must be places of safety and learning for children,” Erika Guevara-Rosas, senior director of research, advocacy, policy and campaigns at Amnesty International, said in the report. “Instead, this school in Minab became a site of massacres. American authorities could and should have known that this was a school building.”

The aftermath of the attack was documented in a series of videos verified by NBC News. Video shows black smoke billowing from a building where one wall is painted blue with flowers and the sound of a woman screaming can be heard. Another video shows men searching through the rubble, where an arm protrudes.

Another video shows a group of women wearing traditional black chadors, sitting next to a pile of colorful backpacks. The person recording it zooms in on a pink backpack that appears to be stained with blood. “A student’s bloody backpack,” the person said.

In a separate video, several black body bags are lined up in a row on the floor of a building. The person recording unzips a body bag to show the body of a child with a bloodied head and wearing a green plaid shirt. “This is proof of America’s crime!” the person shouts. “What crime did this student commit? This is proof of the crimes of the Zionist regime! What wrong did this child do?” Bodies of children can be seen in other body bags still wearing school uniforms.