President Donald Trump on Saturday told reporters, without citing evidence, that he believes the bombing of an Iranian girls’ school was “done by Iran.”
“In my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran…We think it was done by Iran, because they’re very inaccurate with their munitions, they have no accuracy whatsoever, it was done by Iran,” Trump said on Air Force One after attending the dignified transfer of six U.S. soldiers who were killed in an Iranian strike in Kuwait on March 1.
When pressed by the administration on whether Trump’s assessment was accurate, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded by saying that the Pentagon was “investigating,” adding that “the only side that targets civilians is Iran.”
Iranian state media and health officials reported that the strike on February 28, the war’s first day, resulted in the deaths of numerous individuals, including schoolgirls aged 7 to 12. Iranian officials have blamed the strike on the United States and not Israel.
In a statement, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly confirmed that the “investigation is ongoing” into the incident.
“There are no conclusions at this time, and it is both irresponsible and false for anyone to claim otherwise,” Kelly said Friday. “As we have said, unlike the terrorist Iranian regime, the United States does not target civilians.”
Iranian media identified the building as the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school. In Iran, Saturdays are regular school days.
The deadly strike killed more than 170 people and left witnesses to find the severed limbs of children in the rubble. The strike hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in the city of Minab on Feb. 28, the first day of coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iranian military targets. Iranian officials say more than 160 people were killed—most of them young schoolchildren—making it one of the deadliest incidents of the conflict so far.
