President Donald Trump has denied that the US was responsible for dropping a missile on a girls’ elementary school in Iran.
Last Saturday, February 28, the US and Israel carried out a joint attack on the Middle Eastern country, targeting military sites in Tehran as well as other Iranian cities including Isfahan, Qom, Karaj, and Kermanshah.
The airstrikes quickly succeeded in destroying the compound of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, killing him in the process. Trump and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu have said their decision to launch the joint operation was driven by a desire to end totalitarian leadership in Iran and stop its alleged efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon.
On the first day of the airstrikes, an all‑girls elementary school in the city of Minab was hit by drones. According to the BBC, the devastating strike killed 175 people inside the school, including 151 children between the ages of 7 and 12.
Politico reports that Iran formally blamed the US and Israel for the attack, launching missiles of its own at troops across Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Cyprus.
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said the assault would “never be erased from the historical memory of our nation,” while Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the school bombing as a “crime.”
The New York Times gathered independently verified satellite images and social media content suggesting the school was collateral damage in a US missile strike that also hit nearby buildings.
Among those buildings was a naval base operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps — the Pentagon later confirmed the base was adjacent to the school.
It was only a matter of time before Donald Trump was asked about the school’s destruction, and when he was, on Sunday, March 8, he refused to accept any responsibility.
While exiting Air Force One, a reporter asked him whether the “United States bombed a girls’ elementary school.” Trump responded: “No, in my opinion and based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran.”
The same reporter then asked Secretary of War Pete Hegseth whether the President’s claim was accurate.
Hegseth replied: “We’re certainly investigating. But the only side that targets civilians is Iran.”
President Trump then added: “We think it was done by Iran because they’re very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions.
“They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran.”
