US missile struck Iranian school, killing over 160, Pentagon probe suggests

An ongoing Pentagon investigation has preliminarily determined that a US Tomahawk missile strike on an Iranian elementary school that killed over 160 people, mostly pupils, resulted from a targeting error, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Officials briefed on the investigation told the newspaper that officers at the US Central Command generated the strike coordinates using outdated intelligence provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency, leading to the targeting mistake.

The findings are preliminary, and key questions remain unresolved, including why the outdated information was not double-checked, officials quoted by the newspaper said.

The February 28 strike on Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab occurred during US operations targeting a nearby Iranian military base. Iran has blamed the US for the strike, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has condemned the deadly attack on the girls' school in southern Iran as "inhumane."

While the finding was largely expected since the United States is the only country in the conflict known to use Tomahawk missiles, the incident has already cast a shadow over the US military strikes in Iran, the report noted.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested that Iran, not the United States, was responsible for the school strike.

"Based on what I've seen, that was done by Iran," Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Saturday.

The Tomahawk is "sold and used by other countries," Trump said Monday. "And whether it's Iran, (which) also has some Tomahawks."

"As The New York Times acknowledges in its own reporting, the investigation is still ongoing," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded in a statement.

Analysts say the attack on a school full of students could be recorded as one of the most devastating military errors in recent decades.

(With input from Xinhua)