Donald Trump administration officials confirmed in closed briefings for lawmakers this week that the US had struck an area of Iran where an elementary school was attacked and dozens of children were killed.
This was reported to NBC News by two American officials.
They said the administration also told lawmakers that it was not Israel that carried out the strike on the school.
Officials acknowledged that the US was operating in that particular area of Iran, but did not offer any other plausible version of events, other than the suggestion that the strike could have been carried out by American forces.
According to Iranian authorities, the attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in the southern Iranian city of Minab killed at least 168 people. Some Iranian officials say the death toll could be higher.
The US Central Command said an investigation into the strike was ongoing. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on March 4 that the US was “still investigating” the incident, adding, “We certainly never target civilians, but we are reviewing the circumstances”.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on March 2 that US forces "would not intentionally attack a school".
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Nadav Shoshani told NPR that the Israeli military is "currently not aware of any IDF operation in the area".
And in an interview with NBC News, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that "it is clear that the missiles that hit the school were American", but provided no evidence. He also denied that they could have been Iranian missiles that had gone off course.
War in the Middle East
On the morning of February 28, the United States and Israel launched an attack on Iran. The Israelis called the operation “Lion’s Roar”, the United States called it “Epic Fury”. In the first minutes of the attacks, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and nearly 40 other senior Iranian officials were killed.
Iran responded by attacking Israel and firing ballistic missiles at American bases in the Gulf states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE. Some Iranian drones and missiles targeted infrastructure and residential areas in Arab countries. For example, an Iranian drone struck the largest oil refinery in Saudi Arabia. A fire broke out there, shutting down the plant.
Israel also attacked the Lebanese pro-Iranian Hezbollah, which retaliated and launched a ground operation.
As of the morning of March 4, 870 people were known to have died, 787 of them in Iran. The US says it attacked 2 000 sites, using 5 000 troops and B-2 stealth bombers. In response, Iran launched 500 ballistic missiles and 2 000 drones.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.