Investigation Seeks Truth Behind Deadly US Bombing of Iranian School

A Sky News investigation has revealed the scale of an intelligence failure behind a deadly attack on a primary school in Iran. The 28 February strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab killed 156 people, including 120 pupils and an unborn baby. Seven independent experts said all evidence points to US responsibility. The findings are part of the Sky News documentary, Iran School Bombing: The Search for Truth. Working with the investigative agency Forensic Architecture, Sky News used open-source material to reconstruct the school room by room, as well as other buildings targeted in the attack. Experts presented with our findings said there were multiple opportunities for US intelligence analysts to see that the building had become a school. Two military insiders also said concerns had been raised at the Pentagon for years about outdated targeting information, but those warnings were ignored. At around 10.15am local time, a teacher checking her phone saw that Tehran had been attacked. ‘The discussion did not last long,’ recalled Wajiheh Zakari, a sixth-grade teacher. ‘We said the war is in Tehran. Nothing will happen here.’ Zakari taught at the boys’ school, which was on the ground floor of the building. The building also housed a girls’ school on the upper floor. Around 11am, the boys’ headteacher, Pouran Gholipour, held an emergency meeting to close the school. As most teachers left, Zohreh Shahriyari stayed behind. She was six months pregnant and overwhelmed with stress and anxiety. ‘She could not even stand,’ Zakari said. ‘We comforted her, massaged her shoulders, and eventually sent her back to her classroom.’ Upstairs, the girls’ school teachers had reached the same decision. As teachers began phoning parents, 11-year-old Parastesh slipped out of her classroom into the corridor. Her younger brother, Ali Asghar, was there joking with a classmate. The two boys were going home with their sister. Downstairs, Zakari’s pupils were preparing to leave. Three had already been picked up. Another sixth-grader, Ali Zarei, was told his ride had arrived. ‘I closed the classroom door and followed Ali to see where he was going,’ Zakari said. ‘As he stepped off the platform, there was a terrifying whistling sound.’ At 11.22am, a missile struck a building next to the school. ‘That was the only sound I heard, and then I felt like I went deaf,’ Zakari said. A group of staff and students in the front courtyard, including the pregnant teacher Shahriyari, reportedly ran into the school for cover. Panic erupted inside. ‘Everyone was terrified and screaming,’ Parastesh said. ‘I reached out to pull my brother towards me, to keep him safe, and then it happened.’ Ten seconds after the first missile, the school suffered a direct hit. ‘I was thrown and fell under the rubble. I think I fell to the ground floor,’ Parastesh recalled. ‘As I fell, I remember everything burning and feeling my body being torn apart bit by bit.’ As smoke billowed over the town, bombs continued to fall. At least nine bombs struck within just 85 seconds. Parastesh’s parents, who rushed to the scene after receiving a call from a teacher, arrived in less than five minutes. ‘All the children had been torn to pieces,’ said her father, Jawad. ‘There were hands and feet scattered everywhere.’ Footage verified by Sky News, but too graphic to publish, shows body parts strewn up to 45 metres from the school. ‘All you could hear were the screams and cries of mothers and fathers,’ Zakari said. ‘I had no answers for them. I just stared at the rubble.’ A desperate rescue effort began, with hundreds of parents, local residents, and emergency workers searching for survivors. Around 2.30pm, three more missiles struck in quick succession, hitting buildings near the school and delaying the rescue operation. Three independent experts confirmed to Sky News that the missiles used in this second attack were Tomahawks, based on distinctive fin markings seen in the footage. Umair Yunus, a military analyst at the defence intelligence company Janes, said the US is the only party in the war operating Tomahawks, not Iran or Israel. The attack on the school killed 156 people, including Shahriyari’s unborn baby. Sky News gathered and verified the names and photographs of all but two of the victims. The US has yet to publicly acknowledge responsibility for the attack, with officials insisting an official investigation is still ongoing. President Donald Trump has gone further, at times directly blaming Iran. Sky News has been told that an internal US military investigation concluded human error was the cause, but the report remains under review. Former US Air Force targeting specialist Wes Bryant said satellite imagery alone shows the strike was a precision attack, not an errant Iranian missile. ‘You have impact points almost dead centre of each of the seven to nine buildings hit, including the school,’ he said. Using a 3D model of the school, Forensic Architecture was able to confirm the size, shape, and exact position of the most visible crater. They found the missile struck directly in the centre of the school, inside the boys’ assembly hall, leaving a crater five metres wide.