Investigation further suggests it was U.S. that struck Iranian school, killing 165

Investigation reveals mounting evidence of U.S. responsibility for deadly strike on Iranian school, contradicting official claims.

The investigative group Bellingcat says the newly released video “appears to contradict” U.S. President Donald Trump's claim that Iran was responsible for an explosion at an Iranian school that killed over 165 people at the start of the war raging in the Mideast.

It comes as mounting evidence points to U.S. culpability for the Feb. 28 strike, which hit a school adjacent to a Revolutionary Guard base in Minab, Iran, in the country's southern Hormozgan Province. Experts interviewed by The Associated Press, citing satellite image analysis, say the school was likely struck amid a quick succession of bombs dropped on the compound.

Israel-Iran war updates on March 9, 2026

The video shared by Bellingcat is a three-second clip of a video taken the day the school was struck and circulated Sunday (March 8, 2026) by Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency. The video shows a munition falling on a building, sending a dark plume into the air that mingles with smoke that likely came from earlier strikes on the compound. Trevor Ball, a Bellingcat researcher, geolocated the video to a site near the school, something also done by the AP.

A combination of satellite images shows the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school in Minab, Iran, before (above) and after being struck amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, December 1, 2025 (above) and March 4, 2026. Vantor and 2026 Photo: Planet Labs PBC/Handout via Reuters

Ball identified the munition as a Tomahawk cruise missile, which only the U.S. is known to possess in this war. It's the first evidence of a munition used in the strike. U.S. Central Command has acknowledged using Tomahawk missiles in this war and even released a photo of the USS Spruance, part of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group located within range of the school, firing a Tomahawk missile on Feb. 28.