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In the opening hours of the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran, an elementary school was hit. Iranian health officials and state media asserted that more than 170 children and staff were killed. So what really happened, and who's responsible? NPR's Arezou Rezvani reports.
AREZOU REZVANI, BYLINE: At a Pentagon press conference this week, a reporter asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for more information about the bombed elementary school. Hegseth didn't have much to share.
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PETE HEGSETH: All I can say is that we're investigating that. We, of course, never target civilian targets, but we're taking a look and investigating that.
REZVANI: While much of the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes are targeting government buildings and military installations in the capital city, this strike on the elementary school occurred some 800 miles away in the small southern town of Minab. It sits near the Strait of Hormuz, a key military hub for Iran's elite branch of the armed forces, the Revolutionary Guard Corps and its naval fleet. NPR reviewed satellite imagery that shows two things. One, the school was less than a hundred yards away from a neighboring military complex, and two, more buildings were hit during the bombing than previously known. Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at Middlebury College who specializes in satellite imagery, says the school's proximity to the base and the sites hit are revealing.
JEFFREY LEWIS: It could be a mistaken strike. It could be something that was aimed at the base that went awry. You'd really have to look very carefully at the damage and the context. But I think the simplest explanation is it was struck because it was targeted.
REZVANI: Targeted but not necessarily deliberate. Older satellite images show that until 10 years ago or so, the school building was part of that military naval base. Then it was walled off. It's a change Lewis says analysts may not have detected.
LEWIS: There are thousands of targets across Iran, and so there will be teams in the United States and Israel that are responsible for tracking those targets and updating them. So it's possible that the target didn't get updated, and it's possible that the analysts didn't understand what they were seeing.
REZVANI: With no sides taking responsibility, Iranians have composed their own theories. Many remember how the Revolutionary Guard mistakenly shot down a passenger plane in 2020 shortly after it took off from Tehran and believe this is another blunder. Other Iranians quietly ponder whether the regime did it itself to sway public opinion. Beyond these questions and conspiracies, one fact remains, scores of children and teachers went to school one day and never returned home. Their families joined large crowds this week for the funeral procession.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Singing in non-English language).
REZVANI: State media channels showed the mothers of the killed schoolchildren holding up their dusty backpacks and tattered notebooks.
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UNIDENTIFIED MOTHER #1: (Non-English language spoken).
REZVANI: "My son was just 7 years old. Yesterday was his birthday," wept one mother. She clutched a photograph of her little boy close to her chest. Another bereaved mom spoke to the crowds with a message for President Trump.
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UNIDENTIFIED MOTHER #2: (Non-English language spoken).
REZVANI: "That lunatic Trump should know," she says, "that America and Israel will drown in the blood of these innocent children."
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UNIDENTIFIED MOTHER #2: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED MOTHER #2: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Singing in non-English language).
REZVANI: Arezou Rezvani, NPR News.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Singing in non-English language). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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