The video appears to contradict Trump’s claim that the US did not cause the deadly blast at the Minab school
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New images show what investigative experts say is a possible US Tomahawk missile hitting a compound in southern Iran, meters from a school where a deadly explosion killed more than 165 people at the start of the ongoing war in the Middle East.
This comes as mounting evidence points to the US being responsible for the February 28 strike, which targeted a school near a Revolutionary Guard camp in Minab, Iran, in the country’s southern Hormozgan province. Experts interviewed by the Associated Press, citing analysis of satellite imagery, said the school was likely hit by bombs dropped in the area.
The new images, first analyzed by investigative group Bellingcat, were taken the day the school was struck but were distributed on Sunday by Iran’s Mehr news agency. It shows a missile hitting a building, sending black smoke into the air.
The Associated Press was able to see the video and found out that it was taken from an area near the school, while smoke was already rising from the school grounds.
The satellite image of the compound matches the visual identifiers found in the video, including a building with a flat roof, power lines and cars.
Trevor Ball, a Bellingcat researcher, identified the structure as a Tomahawk cruise missile – the only one the US is known to have in this war.
US Central Command has admitted to using Tomahawk missiles in the war and even released a photo of the USS Spruance – part of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group on the school grounds – firing a Tomahawk missile on Feb. 28.
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Bomb fragments yet to be tested
Bellingcat said the video “seems to contradict” US President Donald Trump’s statement that Iran was responsible for the school explosion.
Neither the U.S. military’s Central Command nor the Israeli military immediately responded to requests for comment Monday from the AP.
When asked by a reporter on Saturday if the US was responsible for the explosion, which killed many children, Trump answered, without giving evidence: “No, in my opinion, based on what I saw, it was done by Iran.”
Trump added that Iran is “absolutely not good” with its weapons.
Several other factors point to a US strike.
Another is the launch of an incident investigation by the US military. According to the Pentagon’s directives on procedures to reduce civilian casualties, the test was launched after a team of investigators made a preliminary determination that the US military might be responsible.
Another location of the school – near the base of the Revolutionary Guards and near the military camp. The US military has focused on naval targets and has approved strikes in the province, including one near a school.
Israel, which has denied carrying out the strike, has focused on Iranian areas close to Israel and has never reported any strikes south of Isfahan, which is 800 kilometers away.
Complicating any assessment of the incident is the lack of photographs of the bomb fragments from the explosion. No independent agency has accessed the site during the war to investigate.
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Janina Dill, an international law expert at Oxford University, wrote in X that even if the strike was fake – and the attacker believed the school was part of a neighboring IRGC base – “it would be a serious violation of international law.”
“Attackers are under an obligation to do everything possible to verify the status of the target object,” he wrote.
The Trump administration, however, has struck a different tone on international humanitarian law.
Speaking about the US operation at a press conference on March 2, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said: “The United States, regardless of what the international agencies say, is unleashing the deadliest and most accurate air power campaign in history.”
“There are no stupid rules for communication,” he said. “There are no fair battles in politics. We fight to win, and we don’t waste time or people’s lives.”
