type: timeline_event
On March 11, 2026, CNN, Time, and the Washington Post published corroborating investigations concluding that the United States was likely responsible for a devastating strike on the Shajareh Tayyiba girls' elementary school in Minab, Hormozgan Province, southern Iran, which occurred on February 28, 2026 -- the first day of Operation Epic Fury. More than 170 people were killed in the strike, the vast majority of them schoolchildren attending morning classes when the missile hit.
Multiple independent forensic investigations -- including analysis by Bellingcat and BBC Verify -- geolocated footage from Mehr News Agency showing a Tomahawk cruise missile, a weapon used exclusively by the United States in the conflict, striking near the school at approximately 10:45 a.m. local time. The school was struck three times in succession. CNN reported that U.S. Central Command had generated target coordinates for an adjacent Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) training facility using Defense Intelligence Agency target intelligence that was based on satellite imagery from 2013. By 2016, a fence had been erected separating the school compound from the IRGC base, but this update was not reflected in the targeting data used.
Washington Post reporting raised additional concerns that AI-assisted target generation systems had contributed to the error by failing to incorporate updated commercial satellite imagery into the strike package. Senate Democrats cited the Minab school strike as a central grievance in their March 9 demands for Hegseth and Rubio to testify before Congress.
UNESCO called the attack "a grave violation of international humanitarian law." The UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights demanded an independent, impartial investigation. Human Rights Watch called on the U.S. and Israel to formally investigate the strike as a potential war crime. The Trump administration did not publicly acknowledge responsibility for the strike and U.S. Central Command declined to comment on specific targets.
The Minab school strike was described by human rights organizations as the deadliest single incident of civilian child casualties in a U.S. military operation since the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam in 1968.