Sky News Investigation: US Intelligence Failures Behind Iranian School Bombing
A comprehensive investigation by Sky News has revealed the scale of an intelligence failure behind a deadly attack on a primary school in Minab, Iran. The strike on 28 February at the Shajareh Tayyebeh school killed 156 people, including 120 students and an unborn baby.
Seven independent experts stated that all available evidence points to US responsibility. The findings are part of a Sky News documentary titled ‘Iran School Bombing: The Search for Truth’.
The incident began around 10.20 am local time. Teacher Wajiheh Zakari recalled seeing news on her phone that Tehran had been attacked. ‘We thought the war was in Tehran, nothing would happen here,’ she said. By 11.00 am, headteacher Pouran Gholipour called an emergency meeting to send pupils home. Amid the panic, pregnant teacher Zohreh Shahriyari sat down, weak with anxiety, whilst 11-year-old Parastesh searched for her younger brother, Ali Asghar.
At 11.22 am, the first missile struck a building next to the school. Ten seconds later, a second missile hit the school directly. Parastesh recalled the horrific moment: ‘I was thrown under the rubble. Everything was burning and I felt my body being torn apart.’ Within just 85 seconds, at least nine bombs fell on the area. Verified footage showed victims’ body parts scattered up to 45 metres from the site. Rescue efforts were delayed when three more missiles struck the area at 2.30 pm.
Munitions experts, including Trevor Ball from Bellingcat and Umair Yunus from Janes, confirmed that fin fragments visible in recordings were identical to Tomahawk missiles. ‘The US is the only party in this war that operates Tomahawks — not Iran, not Israel,’ Yunus stated. Satellite data placed the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, including the destroyer USS Spruance, in the Arabian Sea on the day of the attack, just 716 km from Minab — well within the Tomahawk’s 1,850 km operational range.
A joint investigation with Forensic Architecture revealed that the building had indeed been a former Asef Brigade military complex until 2015. However, since October 2015, the site was physically separated with a new wall, watchtowers were removed, and it was converted into a school and other civilian facilities, including a medical clinic and playground.
Two internal US military sources told Sky News that the Pentagon had long been warned about outdated target data in the Modernized Integrated Database (MIDB). ‘Leadership at the Defence Intelligence Agency thought everything was fine, whilst analysts ignored database updates in favour of other tasks deemed more prestigious,’ one anonymous source revealed. Wes Bryant, a former US Air Force targeting specialist, added that the Pentagon’s civilian protection unit was disbanded when Donald Trump took office. ‘This error is not simply an accident, but a choice about how we ensure a target is what we think it is,’ said Oona Hathaway, professor of international law at Yale University.
To date, the US has not publicly acknowledged responsibility for the attack. When asked about his administration’s accountability on 24 June, President Donald Trump dismissed it as a strange question, claiming the event was long past. For the families in Minab, the grief never ends. Parastesh’s father recounted that his family now rarely leaves home except to visit Ali Asghar’s grave. ‘We just want to sleep, that’s all. That is our state now,’ he concluded.