Washington– Outdated intelligence likely prompted the United States to carry out a deadly missile attack on an elementary school in Iran that killed more than 165 people, many of them children, in the early hours of the conflict, according to a U.S. official and another person familiar with the results of a preliminary U.S. military investigation into the incident.
The school bombing and child casualties have become a focal point of the war, and if ultimately confirmed to have been at the hands of the United States, it would also be among the highest civilian casualty events caused by US military operations in the past two decades.
President Donald Trump initially blamed Iran for the attack, later said he was unsure who was responsible, and then said he would accept the results of the Pentagon investigation. The issue gained added urgency on Wednesday after The New York Times first reported that a preliminary investigation found the United States was responsible.
Related to: Read the latest updates on Iran here
US Central Command based the target coordinates for the strike using old data provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency, according to the person familiar with the initial finding.
The agency did not respond to a request for comment.
The initial finding sparked immediate calls for more information from the Pentagon. White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said, “The investigation is still ongoing.”
Both the US official and the person familiar with the matter spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
This image broadcast by Iranian state television on February 28, 2026, shows what it says is the site of deadly US and Israeli strikes that hit a girls’ primary school.
Photography by Alex Meta/IRIB TV/AFP via Getty Images
Dozens of Democratic senators demanded answers from the Trump administration on Wednesday, as a growing body of evidence suggests the United States was likely responsible for the strike.
The letter sent by more than 45 senators pressed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on whether the United States was responsible for the strike and what previous analysis had been done of the building. The senators also raised concerns about the Pentagon hollowing out a congressionally mandated office created specifically to reduce civilian casualties.
“Under this administration, budget and staff cuts at the Department have deprived military commands of vital resources to prevent and respond to civilian casualties,” the senators wrote. These include cuts to US Central Command, whose forces are leading the military campaign against Iran, and the Center of Excellence for the Protection of Civilians, which was signed into law in 2022 as part of the Pentagon’s ambition to reduce the death toll from strikes.
The revelations could threaten to undermine public support for US efforts against Iran at a time when Trump, who as a candidate railed against US involvement in “stupid” foreign wars, faces continuing questions about the purpose of the conflict and what could end it.
A former Pentagon official said the February 28 strike on Shajarat Taiba Elementary School, which is located near an adjacent Iranian Revolutionary Guard base, was a natural result of changes made by the Trump administration to reduce staffing to mitigate civilian harm and Hegseth’s focus on killing rather than legality.
Evidence is mounting that the United States was responsible for the strike
There are several indications that the school strike could have been avoided.
It happened on Saturday morning, the beginning of the Iranian school week, when the building was full of young children. Satellite analysis conducted by the Associated Press shows that the school, as well as other targets struck on the same day, had visible characteristics from the air that could identify them as civilian sites before they were struck.
The Associated Press reported last week that satellite images, analysis by experts, a US official and public information released by the US military all indicated it was a possible US strike. That evidence grew stronger on Monday, with new footage emerging showing what experts identified as a US-made Tomahawk cruise missile hitting the military complex while smoke was already rising from the area where the school is located.
Publicly available satellite images show that the school building was part of the military complex until around 2017, when a new wall was added to separate the two. A watchtower was also removed from the property. Around the same time, photographs show that the walls surrounding the building were painted with murals in vibrant colors, especially blue and pink, so bright that they could be seen from space.
The school is clearly labeled as such on online maps and has an easily accessible website full of information about students, teachers and administrators.
International law governing war prohibits strikes against structures, vehicles, and persons who are not military objectives or combatants. Civilian homes, schools, medical facilities and cultural sites are generally off-limits to military strikes. The school’s proximity to a legitimate military target does not change its status as a civilian site, said Elise Baker, a senior staff attorney at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based nonprofit think tank.
Senator Tim Kaine said during a press conference on Wednesday that if the United States is found responsible, either we have changed our traditional targeting rules or we have made a mistake.
“If we change our traditional targeting rules and no longer provide the same level of protection to civilians, that would be tragic,” Kane said.
Some Republicans are also sounding the alarm.
Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota told reporters that the investigation needs to “get to the bottom of the matter” and then “admit if you know whose fault it is.”
Kramer said that if the United States was behind this, the military should “do everything in its power to eliminate these mistakes in the future.”
“But you can’t undo that either,” he added.
Protection barriers have been destroyed to reduce civilian deaths
Congress directed the Pentagon to establish a Center of Excellence in Civilian Protection in late 2022 as part of the broad annual defense authorization bill, which passed both chambers with broad bipartisan support. The goal of the center is “to institutionalize the knowledge, practices, and tools needed to prevent, mitigate, and respond to harm to civilians,” the draft law said.
The action turned into law an initiative that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had already begun earlier that year. Austin said at the time that the 36-step action plan was “ambitious and necessary.”
In April 2023, that office had a full-time director appointed by the military and an initial core staff of 30 civilians, according to a 2024 Pentagon report that said the workforce was expected to grow.
Wes Bryant began working there in 2024 as the Civil Damage Assessments Branch Chief. He said one of the things the office has been discussing is updating the “no-strike list,” a series of civilian targets in other countries that the Pentagon maintains. He added that when he worked at the Pentagon, the list was known to be outdated. But under Hegseth, the office was downsized and work on updating no-strike lists stopped, he said.
“They don’t have a budget. They’re sitting there trying to maintain any semblance of a mission,” he said.
Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for US Central Command, denied reports that the military command had only one person assigned to the mission, but did not provide any further details, citing the ongoing investigation.
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