Iran says a girls’ school has been hit by a deadly airstrike. Here’s what we know.

Mourners gathered in the Iranian city of Minab last week at the funeral of the victims of what Iranian authorities say was a deadly air strike on a girls’ school in. on the first day of the US-Israeli military invasion.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Pentagon is investigating. Israeli forces were not active in the area at the time, two sources told CBS News.

The first US test suggests that the United States was “likely” to cause a fatal attack but he did not target the school on purpose and may have hit it by mistake, perhaps due to the use of long-standing intelligence that incorrectly identified the site as part of an Iranian military installation, a person briefed on the initial intelligence told CBS News.

Iranian authorities said that the blast that occurred in Minab, Hormozgan province in southern Iran, occurred on Saturday, Feb. 28, and it is the largest number of casualties reported so far in the conflict. Iranian health officials and state media say around 170 people have died, most of them schoolgirls between the ages of 7 and 12.

Journalists from international news organizations did not have unrestricted access to the area to independently verify the charge or conditions. Iranian authorities must grant express permission to foreign media organizations wishing to report outside Tehran.

Here’s what we know so far:

Video images and pictures

Pictures taken from the parking lot showed black smoke billowing from the damaged building decorated with graffiti depicting crayon drawings, children and an apple.

CBS News shared the clip from the building in Minab. Iranian media identified the building as Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School. Saturdays are normal school days in Iran.

CBS News also confirmed that the building was near two areas controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including the IRGC Seyyed Al-Shohada Barracks.

The Shahid Absalan clinic, under the supervision of the IRGC medical force, is located 780 meters from the site, Agence France-Presse reported.

Minab is conveniently located near The Strait of Hormuzwhich is one of the most important shipping routes in the world, especially for oil and gas.

A CBS News analysis of satellite images provided by Planet Labs shows that the school appears to be one of several buildings hit in the area on Feb. 28. Before and after photos show what appears to be a building inside a well-known Iranian military base that was destroyed, and another building where a hole can be seen in the roof in a later photo.

A newly emerged video, uploaded Sunday by Mehr News, Iran’s official news agency, appears to show a Tomahawk cruise missile at a Revolutionary Guard center near the school, according to an analysis by CBS News and several weapons experts.

The United States was the only country involved in the conflict at the time known to have this type of weapon on its soil, two experts told CBS News.

Dr. NR Jenzen-Jones, director of Armament Research Services (ARES), told CBS News that the weapon is a US Tomahawk missile. “From the point of view of the belligerents, the use of this weapon indicates that it is an American strike, since Israel is not known to have Tomahawk missiles,” he said. He added that neither Iran, Israel, nor the Gulf states have Tomahawks in their arsenals.

Wes J. Bryant, a defense and national security analyst and former Pentagon adviser on precision warfare and civil defense, also identified the missile in the video as a Tomahawk. In addition, Trevor Ball, the weapons expert who first confirmed the Bellingcat image, a group of researchers, said the missile was a Tomahawk.

What Iran says

Iranian state television and a local official identified the site as Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab.

Iran said more than 170 people were killed in what President Masoud Pezeshkian described as US-Israeli strikes on the school.

Pezeshkian said on social media that “attacks on schools are aimed at the future of the nation,” and said that the hospital was also attacked.

“Targeting patients and children clearly violates humanitarian principles,” he said. “The world must condemn that. I stand with my grieving nation. Iran will not remain silent or allow this crime.”

According to state media, Iran on Tuesday held the funerals of at least 165 people, including students, who died in the alleged strike.

Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesman for Iran’s health ministry, told Post X that many of those who died at the school were “martyrs’ children.”

State television showed images of a crowd of mourners in Minab wailing over what appeared to be corpses wrapped in white clothes. Other photos released by state media on Tuesday show people preparing coffins draped in the Iranian flag — some with pictures of children.

A third clip also shared by state media shows a large crowd gathered in the same fields with the caption written in Persian: “Prayer service for the perished children of Minab.”

Another aerial photo showed diggers digging at least 100 graves in an unidentified mass burial site.

Pentagon investigation

When he was asked by BBC News on Wednesday about the incident that allegedly happened news conferenceDefense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon is investigating.

“All I can say is that we investigate, and we never target human victims,” ​​Hegseth said, without elaborating.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday said the United States would not target the school on purpose.

“The United States will not deliberately target the school. Our targets are missiles, both the ability to produce them and the ability to launch them,” he told the media.

White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement on Friday: “This investigation is ongoing. There are no conclusions yet, and it is irrelevant and false for anyone to say otherwise. As we have said, unlike the terrorist regime in Iran, the United States is not targeting civilians.”

But a person familiar with the ongoing investigation says investigators believe the US may have been responsible, because the US was operating in the area while Israel was not. No final conclusions have been reached, the source said.

Israel does not know “any connection”

Two sources familiar with the situation tell CBS News that Israel was not active at the school site. This included an Israeli source, who said Israel was not responsible for the attack and that the Israeli military was not operating near the school.

Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani told CBS News that the IDF “has not found anything connected to our operations,” when asked about the incident.

Asked by CBS News’ Matt Gutman if he thought the school strike claim was misinformation from Iran, Shoshani said he suggested “caution when using information provided by a regime that is killing its own people.”

Shoshani also told reporters: “Right now he doesn’t know about an Israeli or American strike there. … We are working very precisely.”

“Ensure accountability”

The United Nations human rights chief, Volker Turk, is calling for an immediate, impartial and thorough investigation into the attack.

The spokeswoman for the UN human rights office Ravina Shamdasani said, “The burden is on the shoulders of the soldiers who attacked to investigate.”

Norway-based rights group Hengaw said it is seeking information about the victims. In a statement, the organization said that at the time of the incident, the Shajare Tayyebeh school was having its morning program and it was reported that there were about 170 students.

The rights group said the target of the strike was reportedly near IRGC facilities – a claim the news channel could not independently verify.

“The establishment and expansion of military bases near schools and public places puts citizens at great risk,” said Hengaw.