JERUSALEM (AP) — Investigative group Bellingcat says newly released video “appears to contradict U.S. President Donald Trump’s assertion” that Iran was responsible for a bombing at an Iranian school that killed more than 165 people at the outbreak of war in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, evidence is mounting that the United States was responsible for the February 28 attack on a school near the Minab Revolutionary Guard base in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province. Experts interviewed by The Associated Press, citing analysis of satellite imagery, said the school was likely hit in a rapid succession of bomb attacks.
The video shared by Bellingcat was a three-second clip taken on the day the school was attacked and disseminated by Iran’s semi-official Meir news agency on Sunday. Video showed a munition falling on a building, sending a black plume into the air mixed with smoke that may have come from an earlier attack on the building. Bellingcat researcher Trevor Ball located the video to a location near the school, and the Associated Press did the same.
Power identified the munition as a Tomahawk cruise missile – a missile that only the United States is known to possess during the war. This was the first evidence that munitions were used in the attack.
Assessment of the incident is further complicated by the lack of images of the blast debris. No independent agency arrived at the scene to investigate during the war.
When a reporter asked on Saturday whether the United States was responsible for the explosion, which mainly killed children, Trump replied without providing evidence: “No, in my opinion, based on what I saw, it was Iran.” Trump added that the Iranian munitions were “very inaccurate.” Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth quickly chimed in to say the U.S. was investigating.
Several factors point to a U.S. strike.
First, the US military conducted an assessment of the incident. In accordance with the Pentagon’s directive on civilian harm mitigation procedures, the assessment will be initiated after a team of investigators initially determines that U.S. forces may have been responsible. A U.S. official told The Associated Press that the attack was likely carried out by the United States. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on sensitive matters.
Another is the school’s location—adjacent to a Revolutionary Guards base and close to the naval unit’s barracks. The U.S. military has focused on naval targets and acknowledged carrying out attacks in the province, including one near a school.
Israel denied launching the attack, which focused on areas of Iran closer to Israel, and no attacks were reported south of Isfahan, 800 kilometers (500 miles) from Israel. U.S. warships operating in the Arabian Sea, including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, are within the school’s boundaries.
Neither the U.S. military’s Central Command nor the Israeli military immediately responded to requests for comment Monday from The Associated Press on Bellingcat’s analysis.
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Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Doral, Florida, contributed to this report.
