The initial investigation determined: the US Army is responsible for the attack at the elementary school

A preliminary investigation by the American military determined that the United States is responsible for the deadly attack that hit an elementary school in Iran and killed many children, as was published last night (Wednesday) in a series of major media outlets in the United States. The New York Times reported that the investigation revealed that a cruise missile hit the school due to the use of outdated information and a mistake in the classification of the target.

The attack took place on February 28, the first day of the war, and as part of it, cruise missiles hit the Shajara Taibeh elementary school in the city of Minab in southern Iran. Iran said that at least 175 people were killed in the attack, most of them children.

The school was attacked following a mistake in the identification of the American army, which simultaneously carried out attacks on a nearby Iranian base – of which the school building was previously a part, according to the findings of the investigation published in the New York Times. The mistake was due to the fact that American officers marked the target of the attack based on outdated data provided by the Ministry of Defense’s intelligence agency.

The school is located near the base used by the Revolutionary Guards’ navy, and used to be part of the base. American intelligence classified the building as a military target, so it was bombed along with the base. The investigation is still preliminary, and many questions were left open – such as why the outdated intelligence was not re-examined.

The American intelligence agencies work with artificial intelligence tools and advanced technologies, and in particular with the artificial intelligence model Claude of the company Anthropic – which raised concerns that the mistake was due to the use of AI. However, sources who spoke to the New York Times emphasized that it was probably human error, and not an error that originated from the use of technology.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other senior administration officials refused to comment on the attack, other than saying that it was under investigation. Despite this, President Donald Trump has sometimes tried to place the responsibility on Iran. “In my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, it was done by Iran,” Trump told reporters on Saturday, with Hesseth standing by his side. He later said he did not know enough about the case. The White House announced that they would receive the findings of the investigation.