President Donald Trump has denied US responsibility for dropping a missile on a girls’ elementary school in Iran.
Last Saturday, February 28, the US and Israel engaged in a joint attack on the Middle Eastern country that saw them target military sites in the capital of Tehran, as well as other Iranian cities including Isfahan, Qom, Karaj, and Kermanshah.
Airstrikes were quickly successful in destroying the compound of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, killing him in the process. Trump and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu have claimed that their decision to launch a joint effort was driven by a desire to end totalitarian leadership in Iran, as well as stop their supposed efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon.
On the first day of the airstrikes, an all-girl’s elementary school in the city of Minab, was hit by drones. As per the BBC, the devastating attack killed 175 people inside the school, including 151 children between the ages of 7 and 12.
According to Politico, Iran formally blamed America and Israel for the attack, launching missiles of their own at troops across Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Cyprus.
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian claimed the assault would ‘never be erased from the historical memory of our nation’, while the country’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, criticized the school bombing as a ‘crime’.
The New York Times gathered independently-verified satellite images and social media content that suggests the school was collateral damage in a US missile attack that simultaneously struck nearby buildings as well.
Amongst them was a naval base operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps – the Pentagon later confirmed this base been adjacent to the school.
It was only a matter of time before Donald Trump was asked about the destruction of the school, and when he was, on Sunday, March 8, he refused to accept any blame.
Whilst exiting Air Force One, he was asked by a reporter if the ‘United States bombed a girls’ elementary school’. Trump replied: “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 if the President’s claim was correct.
Hegseth said: “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.”
