Thousands Attend Funeral for 175 Students Killed in Israeli Bombing in Iran

Thousands of mourners filled the streets of Minab, a city in southern Iran, on Tuesday as they escorted the victims of an Israeli air strike on a girls’ primary school last Saturday. The attack was among the deadliest episodes in the US-Israeli campaign against Iran. The bombing of the school killed at least 175 people, many of them students at Shajarah Tayyebeh Girls School in Minab, according to local health officials and Iran’s state media. Several videos and pictures show at least half of the two-storey building destroyed by the blast. More than 700 people have died in Iran after the United States and Israel launched the opening strikes against Iran last Saturday. The attack also killed the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran subsequently retaliated with a wave of rocket and drone strikes against various countries in the region. Before the funeral in Minab on Tuesday, workers were digging a row of graves in a cemetery about eight kilometres from the primary school. Circulating video shows mourners crowding around trucks bearing coffins. Some wailed in grief while others showered the coffins with sweets and rose petals. Aerial photographs show mourners at the cemetery as coffins were lowered into the graves. Video shows the crowd praying and singing in support of the Islamic Republic. The school sits adjacent to the naval base of Iran’s most powerful military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The building had previously been part of a military site; however, in 2016 the building was walled off and no longer connected to the base. Neither the Israeli government nor the United States has directly claimed responsibility for the attack on the school. However, the United States Central Command said on Saturday that they were aware of reports of civilian casualties and were investigating them.