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A preliminary investigation from the Pentagon found that the US was behind the strike on an Iranian school that killed 175 children.
The invention comes days after President Donald Trump suggested Iran was behind the strike, which saw an American Tomahawk missile strike Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school.
The White House has not yet addressed the investigation’s findings, telling reporters in a press conference: ‘As The Latest York Times acknowledges in its own reporting, the investigation continues to be ongoing.’
Investigative group Bellingcat found a video which appeared to contradict Trump’s previous claim that Iran was behind the strike.
Experts cited satellite image evaluation and said the school was likely struck amid a fast succession of bombs dropped on the compound.
The video shared by Bellingcat is a three-second clip of a video taken the day the school was struck and circulated on Sunday by Iran’s semiofficial Mehr news agency.
The video shows a munition falling on a constructing, sending a dark plume into the air that mingles with smoke that likely got here 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.
Ball identified the munition as a Tomahawk cruise missile, which only the US is thought to own on this war. It’s the primary evidence of a munition utilized in the strike.
US Central Command has acknowledged using Tomahawk missiles on this war and even released a photograph of the USS Spruance, a part of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group situated inside range of the school, firing a Tomahawk missile on February 28.
When asked by a reporter on Saturday whether the US was chargeable for the blast, which killed mostly children, Trump responded, without providing evidence: ‘No, for my part, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran.’
Janina Dill, an authority on international law at Oxford University, wrote that even when the strike was a misidentification – and the attacker believed that the school had been an element of the neighbouring IRGC base – it could still be ‘a really serious violation of international law’.
The US military has focused on naval targets and acknowledged strikes within the province, including one within the vicinity of the school.
How did the strike occur, and who’re the victims?
Witnesses from the Red Crescent, which responds to emergency situations, said children were killed in a ‘double tap’ strike – where, after an initial strike, a second is fired to kill survivors and medics.
‘When the primary bomb hit the varsity, one in every of the teachers and the principal moved a bunch of scholars to the prayer hall to guard them,’ a medic told Middle East Eye.
‘The principal called the parents and told them to come back and pick up their children. However the second bomb hit that area as well. Only a small variety of those that had taken shelter survived.’
61 known victims of the strike
- Hana Dehqani, eight years old
- Fatemeh Salari, 34 years old
- Reza Habashian, seven years old
- Arya Bahadori, nine years old
- Ali Asghar Zaeri, eight years old
- Zahra Bahrami, seven years old
- Ahmad Soltani, eight years old
- Hamed Par-ashegh-nezhad, seven years old
- Fatemeh Yazdan-panah, a young girl, age unknown
- Mahdis Nazari, seven years old
- Athena Chamani-nezhad, six years old
- Amirghasem Zaeri, seven years old
- Fatemeh Dorazehi, 10 years old
- Arad Ahmadizadeh, eight years old
- Saman Karimzadeh, seven years old
- Fatemeh Shahdadi, age unknown
- Nadia Shahmiri, nine years old
- Parham Ranjbari, nine years old
- Mahmoud Gholamyani, 35 years old
- Fatemeh Rahdar, 10 years old
- Amir-Hassan Rasouli, eight years old
- Zahra Behrouzi, eight years old
- Mohammadhatam Raisi, 10 years old
- Asna Raisi, 12 years old
- Benyamin Jangjou, eight years old
- Mohammad-Sadra Zarei, eight years old
- Maryam Pazark, 10 years old
- Liana Mohammadi, seven years old
- Mandana Salari, 29 years old
- Sara Shayesteh, five years old
- Zoha Pasand, eight years old
- Esra Zakeri, nine years old
- Salma Zakeri, six years old
- Fatemeh Taherifard, 29 years old
- Zahra Ansari, seven years old
- Fatemeh Fadavi, 10 years old
- Mahna Zarei, two months old
- Athareh Zarei, 10 years old
- Alireza Zarei, nine years old
- Mohammadreza Shahsavari, eight years old
- Samira Basarde, 38 years old
- Ehsan Saleminia, six years old
- Fatemeh Zahra Karimi, seven years old
- Zeynab Bahrami, 10 years old
- Mohammad Shah-dousti, eight years old
- Reza Barani, seven years old
- Athena Ahmadzadeh, 10 years old
- Khadijeh Darvishi, nine years old
- Roqayyeh Karimi, 42 years old
- Reza Ranjbar, six years old
- Marzieh Bashiri-far, 38 years old
- Mohammad-Mehdi Chegini, 10 years old
- Mohammadian Bahrami, 17 years old
- Ali-Akbar Karyani Pak, eight years old
- Hananeh Mehdikhah, seven years old
- Fereshteh Sangarzadeh, 44 years old
- Mohammad-Ali Karyani Pak, seven years old
- Parsa Mokhtari-nasab, 12 years old
- Arina Arab-Kish, eight years old
- Makan Nasiri, 12 years old
- Esra Farahi-Zadeh, a young girl, age unknown
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