WASHINGTON, D.C. — Five former US officials, including a former top military lawyer, criticized the Pentagon for not acknowledging potential American involvement in a February 28 missile strike on a primary school in Minab, Iran. Iranian officials said the strike killed 168 people, including around 110 children, during the opening salvos of the US-Israeli war.
In the two months following the strike, the Pentagon said only that the incident was under investigation. A Pentagon official said, "This incident is currently under investigation." The US Department of Defense declined to answer multiple questions about the strike and repeatedly declined to say whether the Iranian military base next to the school was among its planned targets on February 28.
The BBC independently confirmed video showing a US Tomahawk missile striking the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps base next to the school. A BBC review of three historical cases in which civilians were killed during US military operations found that in each case the Pentagon released more information within less than a month.
Lt Col Rachel E VanLandingham, a retired Judge Advocate General, said the current US position departs from the standard response and that the administration's statements lacked a commitment to accountability and to preventing future incidents. VanLandingham said, "Administrations in the past at least demonstrated fidelity, a commitment to the law of war."
Wes Bryant, a former senior adviser on precision warfare and civilian harm mitigation who left the Pentagon last year when staffing at the civilian harm unit was reduced, addressed the threshold for formal inquiries. Bryant said, "When you meet both of those criteria, that's the only time that an investigation is actually formally initiated." He added, "To not even be able to have any comment on it whatsoever is just unacceptable."
On March 7, President Trump said Iran was to blame for the Minab strike without providing evidence, and claimed without evidence that Iran had Tomahawk missiles. Pentagon officials gave closed-door briefings on military operations to members of Congress since the start of the war on Iran and have been asked questions about the Minab strike.
On March 10, Senator John Kennedy said, "I think we made a mistake. It was a terrible, terrible mistake." On April 2, a letter sent on behalf of Defense Secretary Hegseth said an investigating officer from outside the CENTCOM chain of command had been appointed and that the results would be shared once the investigation was completed.