Top lawmaker Adam Smith has pressed US Central Command chief Brad Cooper to acknowledge what he called “obvious” US culpability
The Pentagon has once again refused to admit responsibility for a strike on an Iranian school that killed more than 170 people, most of them children, despite pressure from US lawmakers.
The Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in southern Iran was hit on February 28, the first day of the US-Israeli bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic. According to Iranian officials, 175 people were killed, most of them children.
US officials initially offered conflicting explanations, with President Donald Trump even suggesting the strike was “done by Iran.” Investigations by media outlets and analysts later concluded that the school was likely hit by a US-made missile.
An internal military probe reportedly found US forces likely used “outdated targeting data” that misidentified the school as part of a nearby Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps naval base. The Pentagon later elevated the investigation but has since only said that it is ongoing.
At a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, lawmakers pressed Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, to acknowledge US responsibility and disclose the preliminary findings.
“It’s been 80 days or thereabouts since the initial bombing campaign that struck the girls’ school. It’s really pretty clear what happened there,” Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the committee, said.
He accused the Pentagon of “endless stalling,” noting that it previously moved much faster to acknowledge “these types of mistakes” even before completing formal probes.
“Can you at this moment acknowledge that that mistake was made and that we were responsible for it?” Smith asked Cooper, who replied that “the US does not deliberately target civilians” and reiterated that the investigation is ongoing.
“So that’s a no? We will not take responsibility for something we very obviously did?” Smith said.
Cooper deflected, saying “it’s a complex investigation” and claiming that the school was located “on an active IRGC cruise missile base,” while promising lawmakers a report once the probe is complete.
Archived copies of the school’s official website, however, indicate that the school was adjacent to – not inside – the military compound and separated from it by a fence visible in satellite imagery. Reacting to Cooper’s remarks, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei called his claims “an appalling lie.”
“This shameless distortion is a clear attempt to obscure the severe reality,” he wrote on X on Wednesday, calling for accountability and describing the strike as “a grave violation of international humanitarian law” and “a clear war crime.”
The claim by U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) that the targeted #Shajareh_Tayyebeh Elementary School in #Minab was located within a “missile launch facility” is a baseless fabrication and an appalling lie.
This shameless distortion is a clear attempt to obscure the severe…
The tragedy sparked international outrage. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the US of “cruelty, cynicism, and dehumanization.” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed solidarity with the victims of the “massacre.”
While active fighting paused under a fragile April ceasefire, US-Iran negotiations on a broader peace deal remain deadlocked. Trump has dismissed Iran’s latest proposals and again threatened to resume strikes unless Tehran accepts US terms.
“We may have to give Iran another big hit… I’m saying two or three days, maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday, something, maybe early next week, a limited period of time, because we can’t let them have a new nuclear weapon,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
