US probe links strike on Iranian school to outdated intelligence, 175 killed
A preliminary U.S. military inquiry into the Iranian school strike found a possible targeting error as a contributing factor. The attack occurred on the morning of the first day of a joint U.S. and Israeli operation against Iran, and Iran says at least 175 people, mostly students and teachers, were killed. Yonhap News Agency reported, citing The New York Times and officials familiar with the investigation.
The target was the Shahzara Taiyiba Girls’ Elementary School in Minab, Hormozgan Province. Iranian authorities described the school as having once been used as part of a military base, a factor now under scrutiny in the probe.
Investigators say the mis-targeting may have stemmed from a process that used older intelligence to designate the site near a Revolutionary Guard Navy base in Minab. The Defense Intelligence Agency provided target coordinates to U.S. Central Command based on that past information, according to the reporting.
The New York Times, based on satellite analysis, noted that the school building had been separated from military facilities between 2013 and 2016. CENTCOM reportedly used the data supplied by the DIA to set the attack coordinates, highlighting questions about data freshness and verification.
Officials emphasize the findings are preliminary. Investigators are examining how old information entered the targeting loop, whether more up-to-date intelligence existed, and how such information was transmitted to CENTCOM, as well as the adequacy of the verification processes.
Iran announced that the strike killed at least 175 people, and it released photos of missile fragments it says were from the attack. Some U.S. media and defense analysts have said the fragments resemble components used by Tomahawk missiles.
The report underscores the multi-agency nature of targeting in modern campaigns and the difficulties of real-time verification in war. The New York Times described the incident as potentially one of the deadliest military operation mistakes in decades and drew a historical parallel to the 1999 NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade due to misinformation from the CIA. The article also notes that former President Donald Trump was reportedly focusing on Iran’s navy and suppressing regional trade as aims of the operation.