Report finds targeting mistake led to US strike on Iran girls’ school

A preliminary report regarding the bombing of an Iranian girls’ school determined the U.S. was responsible for the strike, The New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources close to the investigation. As many as 175 people, mostly grade school-aged girls, died after a Tomahawk missile struck the building. 

The strike happened on Feb. 28, the opening day of the Iran War, at the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab, Iran. The Times reported that the U.S. made a mistake and targeted the school. The report stated the U.S. was targeting a nearby Iranian military base and that the school building was formerly a part of the military installation.

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U.S. Central Command officers made targeting coordinates using outdated data from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the military report stated. Many questions related to the strike remain unanswered, specifically why the military didn’t double-check the outdated targeting information. Military officials stressed that this is only a preliminary report, The Times reported. 

How have lawmakers reacted?

Democrats have overwhelmingly criticized the attack, but even before officials released the preliminary report, some Republicans also criticized the major mistake. 

On Monday night, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., apologized for the attack, saying, “It was terrible. We made a mistake.” The next night, during a CNN interview, Kennedy doubled down on his belief that the U.S. was responsible.

“I mean, we’re investigating, but I’m not going to hide behind that. I think that it was a terrible, terrible mistake,” Kennedy said.

When asked on Wednesday about The Times report, President Donald Trump told CNN that he did not know about the article. Trump and other administration officials previously suggested that Iran may be to blame. However, analysts later discovered that a U.S. Tomahawk missile struck the building, and the only country in the Iran War with those weapons was the U.S.

First responders discovered remnants of a Tomahawk missile while searching for survivors. Iranian state media later posted photos of the missile’s mangled machinery on Telegram. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also pushed back on media reports that the U.S. carried out the strike on the girls’ school, saying the press “fell for” Iranian propaganda.

Have similar mistakes happened before?

The U.S. striking a school full of children is one of the worst military errors in recent memory, but the U.S. has a dark history of military mistakes similar to this.

In 1991, during the Gulf War, the U.S. Air Force destroyed a public bomb shelter with civilians inside. The military believed the Iraqi military was using the underground bunker as a command post, citing CIA intelligence.

The CIA’s evidence said the bunker showed no civilian use and was a valid target. However, the intelligence was incorrect, and no military personnel or equipment were inside when the strike occurred. The strike killed mostly women, children and the elderly. Despite the Human Rights Watch and other groups saying the attack was a war crime, no one was ever held accountable for the mistake. 

A ProPublica report released Tuesday evening found that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had largely dismantled a Biden administration initiative where the Department of Defense adopted a Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Plan. The initiative was a way to prevent civilian deaths during military operations, according to ProPublica. Hegseth discontinued much of the program as part of his emphasis on “lethality.”