Julian E. Barnes, Eric Schmitt, Tyler Pager, Malachy Browne and Helene Cooper
Washington: An ongoing military investigation has determined that the United States is responsible for a deadly Tomahawk missile strike on an Iranian elementary school, according to US officials and others familiar with the preliminary findings.
The February 28 strike on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school building was the result of a targeting mistake by the US military, which was conducting strikes on an adjacent Iranian base of which the school building was formerly a part, the preliminary investigation found. Officers at US Central Command (CENTCOM) created the target coordinates for the strike using outdated data provided by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), people briefed on the investigation said.
Officials emphasised that the findings are preliminary and that there are important unanswered questions about why the outdated information had not been double-checked.
Striking a school full of children is sure to be recorded as one of the most devastating single military errors in recent decades. Iranian officials have said the death toll was at least 175 people, most of them children.
While the overall finding was largely expected — the US is the only country involved in the conflict that uses Tomahawk missiles — it has already cast a shadow on the US military operation in Iran.
President Donald Trump’s attempts to sidestep the blame for the strike have also already complicated the inquiry, leaving officials who have reviewed the findings showing US culpability expressing unease. The people interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive nature of the ongoing investigation and Trump’s assertion at one point that Iran, not the United States, was responsible.
“As The New York Times acknowledges in its own reporting, the investigation is still ongoing,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
People briefed on the investigation said many questions were yet to be answered around why outdated information was used and who failed to verify the data.
Still, the error has not surprised current and former officials.
The school, in the town of Minab, is on the same block as buildings used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy, a top target of the US military strikes. The site of the school was originally part of the base. Officials briefed on the inquiry said the building was not always used as a school, though it is not clear precisely when the school opened on the site.
A visual investigation by the Times showed the building housing the school had been fenced off from the military base between 2013 and 2016.
Satellite imagery reviewed by the Times showed that watchtowers that once stood near the building had been removed, three public entrances were opened to the school, ground was cleared and play areas including a sports field were painted on asphalt, and walls were painted blue and pink.
The “target coding” provided by the DIA, the military intelligence agency that helps develops targets, labelled the school building as a military target when it was passed to CENTCOM, the military headquarters overseeing the war, according to people briefed on the preliminary findings of the investigation.
Investigators do not yet fully understand how the outdated data was sent to CENTCOM or whether the DIA had updated information.
Military targeting is very complex and involves multiple agencies. Many officers would have been responsible for verifying that the data is correct, and officers at CENTCOM are responsible for checking the information they receive from the DIA or another intelligence agency. But in a fast-moving situation, like the opening days of a war, information is sometimes not verified.
In addition to the DIA and CENTCOM, investigators are examining the work of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, known as the NGA, which provides and examines satellite imagery of potential targets.
US officials and others emphasised that the investigation was ongoing and there was more to learn, according to people briefed on the inquiry. Officials from CENTCOM declined to comment. Officials from the DIA referred questions to the Pentagon, which declined to comment, saying the incident was under investigation. The NGA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The DIA and the NGA have dozens, even hundreds, of analysts at combatant commands who work with military operational planners and intelligence offices to develop targets.
When the DIA’s targeting data is older, intelligence officers are expected to use imagery or data from the NGA to update and verify the target.
While Trump has made targeting Iran’s navy a top priority of the war to prevent it from interfering with global commerce in the region, historically it has not been a top priority of the DIA, which has focused more on Iran’s missiles and other priorities like China and North Korea.
Officials conducting the investigation have examined whether any artificial intelligence models, data crunching programs or other technical intelligence gathering means were to blame for the mistaken targeting of the school, according to US officials.
While Claude, the large language model created by Anthropic, does not directly create targets, it works with the NGA’s Maven Smart System and other software to identify points of interest for military intelligence officers.
But officials said the error was unlikely to have been the result of new technology. Instead, they said, it likely reflected a common — but sometimes devastating — human error in wartime.
The top-line finding of the internal military investigation mirrors a growing body of public evidence that clearly suggests US responsibility.
Satellite imagery, social media posts and verified videos assembled by the Times’ visual investigation team indicate that the school was severely damaged by a precision strike that occurred around the same time as attacks on the naval base. A Times analysis showed that base was hit again within around two hours of the first strikes.
A video uploaded Sunday by Iran’s semiofficial Mehr News Agency and verified by the Times also shows a Tomahawk cruise missile striking the naval base beside the school in Minab on February 28.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and other administration officials have declined to comment on the strike, other than to say it is under investigation. Despite that, the president has tried at times to put the blame on Iran.
“In my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Saturday, as Hegseth stood beside him, adding: “They’re very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran.”
On Monday, a Times reporter asked Trump why he was the only official in his administration blaming Iran.
“Because I just don’t know enough about it,” Trump answered, asserting incorrectly that Iran might also have Tomahawk missiles but adding that he would accept the results of the inquiry into what happened.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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