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U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that American forces were responsible for a strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children on the first day of the war, two U.S. officials told Reuters, though the investigation has not yet concluded.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters, said the tentative assessment pointed to U.S. responsibility for the strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school in the city of Minab in southern Iran on Saturday.
They did not rule out the possibility that new evidence could absolve the U.S. and point to another party.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth acknowledged on Wednesday that the military was investigating. "All I can say is we're investigating that," Hegseth told reporters.
"We, of course, never target civilian targets. But we're taking a look and investigating that," he added.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to Reuters: "While the Department of War is currently investigating this matter, the Iranian regime targets civilians and children, not the United States of America."
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Monday that the United States would not deliberately target a school.
"The Department of War would be investigating that if that was our strike, and I would refer your question to them," Rubio said.
Iranian officials said the school was struck Saturday while classes were underway.
Minab Governor Mohammad Radmehr stated that the strike directly hit the school, killing girls aged between 7 and 12. The building was largely destroyed and parts of its concrete roof collapsed onto classrooms.
Iranian state media reported 168 people killed and at least 95 injured. Iran's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva Ali Bahreini had earlier said the strike killed 150 students. Reuters could not independently confirm the death toll. Türkiye's state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) obtained the victims' names.
Images of the girls' funeral on Tuesday were shown on Iranian state television.
Their small coffins were draped with Iranian flags and passed from a truck across a large crowd toward the burial site.
The Israeli military said it was not aware of any Israeli or U.S. attack in the area.
Israeli and U.S. forces have divided their attacks in Iran both geographically and by target type, with the United States attacking targets in southern Iran, the region where Minab is located, according to a senior Israeli official and a source with direct knowledge of joint planning.
The U.N. human rights office called for an investigation into the strike on Tuesday without attributing responsibility.
"The onus is on the forces that carried out the attack to investigate it," U.N. human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a press briefing in Geneva.
Deliberately attacking a school, hospital, or any other civilian structure would likely constitute a war crime under international humanitarian law.
If U.S. responsibility were confirmed, the strike would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of American military operations in the Middle East.
The United States and Israel launched military strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and numerous senior officials. More than 1,000 people have been killed in the campaign, according to the U.S.-based NGO Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Iran has retaliated with missile and drone strikes targeting Israel and Gulf countries hosting U.S. military assets, resulting in at least six U.S. service members being killed.
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