US investigators 'say American strike most likely responsible' for Iranian school massacre
US investigators probing an attack on a school in Iran that killed 165 people believe it is most likely that the United States military was responsible for the strike.
Two US officials told Reuters they were still looking into Saturday's attack in the city of Minab, which Middle East Eye revealed was a "double-tap" strike that killed scores of young girls and boys, and not reached a final conclusion.
While they said further evidence could potentially emerge exonerating the US, their initial findings chime with a number of other reports on the incident.
Some social media accounts had misleadingly suggested the school was bombed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), but this has been debunked.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Reuters that "while the Department of War is currently investigating this matter, the Iranian regime targets civilians and children, not the United States of America". Israel also said it is investigating the incident.
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Despite this pushback, a number of reports have pointed the finger at the US.
A report from the New York Times on Thursday, based on satellite imagery, social media posts and verified videos, showed that Shajareh Tayyebeh school was severely damaged by a precision strike that occurred at the same time as attacks on an adjacent naval base operated by the IRGC.
An investigation by MEE has also revealed that the school was hit by two strikes, with the second missile killing sheltering survivors.
Two strikes on the same target are often characterised as “double-tap” strikes, particularly if there is a brief pause between them and medics and other civilians arriving at the scene are killed in the follow-up attack.
Since the US and Israel launched the war on Iran on Saturday, some Iranians have reported attacks that resembled double-tap strikes.
The BBC also later reported that the school and the area around it had been "struck by multiple simultaneous or near-simultaneous strikes", based on satellite imagery and open source evidence.
The UN human rights office on Tuesday called for an investigation, without saying who it believed was responsible for the strike.
"The onus is on the forces that carried out the attack to investigate it," spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a press briefing in Geneva.
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