Congress To Be Briefed As Probe Examines Iran School Strike, Sources Tell RFE/RL

WASHINGTON -- A final assessment by US military officials of events surrounding a deadly missile strike on an Iranian girls' school will be shared with Congress in the coming days, sources told RFE/RL amid growing reports that the attack was likely launched by the United States.

Evidence is building that the strike may be the result of US forces relying on outdated intelligence, according to two US officials familiar with the matter, though they cautioned that the assessment remains preliminary.

The officials, who spoke to RFE/RL on March 11 on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said they could not confirm or deny reports -- which have appeared in The New York Times and Reuters, among other media outlets -- on the faulty intelligence, but they added that early findings point in a similar direction.

The February 28 missile attack hit the Shajarah Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in the southern Iranian city of Minab, in Hormozgan Province, killing at least 175 people, including 168 children, according to local officials.

Questions About Targeting Data

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other US officials have stressed that the United States would not deliberately target civilians.

President Donald Trump initially suggested Iran might have been responsible for the attack. When asked again on March 11 about reports pointing to US responsibility, Trump said he did not know enough about the incident to comment but that he would accept the findings of the investigation.

If confirmed as a US mistake, it would rank among the deadliest incidents of civilian casualties involving American forces in decades.

Two sources briefed on the preliminary findings told Reuters that the targeting data used by officers at US Central Command appeared to rely on outdated intelligence. It remains unclear as to how the obsolete information was incorporated into the targeting process or why it was not verified before the strike.

Archived versions of the school's website indicate the campus sits next to a compound linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the elite Iranian force that answers directly to the country's supreme leader.

Investigators are examining whether earlier intelligence records from the site -- when military facilities reportedly extended closer to the school grounds -- may have contributed to the targeting error.

A Pentagon spokesperson declined to discuss the preliminary findings, saying only that "the incident is under investigation."

Privately, however, officials say lawmakers will soon receive an initial briefing. "There are indications pointing to a potential targeting error," one US official told RFE/RL on the condition of anonymity. "But the review is ongoing, and it would be premature to draw definitive conclusions until investigators complete their work."

Pressure Builds In Congress

The reports have triggered sharp reactions on Capitol Hill as lawmakers demand accountability.

A group of 46 lawmakers led by Democratic senators -- Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Brian Schatz of Hawaii -- sent a letter to Hegseth demanding a swift investigation.

The senators said the findings -- and any steps toward accountability -- should be made public as soon as possible, stressing international humanitarian law requires the United States to minimize civilian harm.

Speaking on the Senate floor on March 11, Schatz warned the incident highlights the dangers of treating war casually.

In remarks that echoed broader concerns among Democrats, he argued that precision and discipline in military operations are not signs of weakness but a recognition of war's human cost. He said that when leaders show carelessness at the top of the chain of command, the consequences can be both moral and strategic.

Schatz said the United States should never treat the use of force lightly or accept civilian deaths as something that can simply be dismissed.

Another Democrat, Chris Murphy, delivered an extended critique of the administration's broader strategy in the conflict with Iran, calling the strike on the school a tragic example of what he described as an incoherent war plan.

Murphy told colleagues that mistakes inevitably happen in war but argued such tragedies illustrate why large-scale bombing campaigns rarely achieve their political objectives. Images of civilian casualties, he warned, tend to harden public opinion in the targeted country rather than weaken it.

He also accused the administration of failing to level with the American public about both the cause of the strike and the broader goals of the war.

Some Republicans Call For Accountability

A small number of Republicans have also publicly acknowledged the possibility of US responsibility for the strike.

John Kennedy of Louisiana apologized to reporters on Capitol Hill for what he described as a likely American mistake.

"It was terrible," Kennedy said, adding the United States would never deliberately target civilians. While stressing the investigation is ongoing, he expressed regret for the loss of life and said the Defense Department must determine exactly what happened.

Meanwhile, North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican, said the United States should not ignore the incident if it proves to be the result of an American strike.

"The worst thing we could do," Tillis told reporters, "is pretend it didn't happen."

If the investigation finds US forces were responsible, he said, the country should acknowledge the mistake openly. At the same time, he noted the school's proximity to an Iranian military facility complicates the circumstances surrounding the strike.

Footage from the site and early investigative reports indicate a Tomahawk cruise missile struck the school. The weapon is used by US forces and has been employed during the opening phase of joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran.