Probe Suggests US Hit Iranian School   03/09 06:20

   

   JERUSALEM (AP) -- The investigative group Bellingcat says newly released 
video "appears to contradict" U.S. President Donald Trump's claim that Iran was 
responsible for an explosion at an Iranian school that killed over 165 people 
at the start of the war raging in the Mideast.

   It comes as mounting evidence points to U.S. culpability for the Feb. 28 
strike, which hit a school adjacent to a Revolutionary Guard base in Minab, 
Iran, in the country's southern Hormozgan Province. Experts interviewed by The 
Associated Press, citing satellite image analysis, say the school was likely 
struck amid a quick succession of bombs dropped on the compound.

   The video shared by Bellingcat is a three-second clip of a video taken the 
day the school was struck and circulated Sunday by Iran's semiofficial Mehr 
news agency. The video shows a munition falling on a building, sending a dark 
plume into the air that mingles with smoke that likely came from earlier 
strikes on the compound. Trevor Ball, a Bellingcat researcher, geolocated the 
video to a site near the school, something also done by the AP.

   Ball identified the munition as a Tomahawk cruise missile -- which only the 
U.S. is known to possess in this war. It's the first evidence of a munition 
used in the strike.

   Complicating any assessment of the incident is the lack of images of bomb 
fragments from the blast. No independent agency has reached the site during the 
war to investigate.

   When asked by a reporter Saturday whether the U.S. was responsible for the 
blast, which killed mostly children, Trump responded, without providing 
evidence: "No, in my opinion, based on what I've seen, that was done by Iran." 
Trump added that Iran is "very inaccurate" with their munitions. Defense 
Secretary Pete Hegseth quickly chimed in to say the U.S. was investigating.

   Several factors point to a U.S. strike.

   One is the launching of an assessment of the incident by the U.S. military. 
According to the Pentagon's instructions on processes for mitigating civilian 
harm, an assessment is launched after a group of investigators make an initial 
determination that the U.S. military may bear culpability. A U.S. official told 
the AP that the strike was likely U.S. The official spoke anonymously because 
they were not authorized to comment publicly on the sensitive matter.

   Another is the location of the school -- next to the Revolutionary Guard 
base and close to barracks for a naval unit. The U.S. military has focused on 
naval targets and acknowledged strikes in the province, including one in the 
vicinity of the school.

   Israel, which has denied conducting the strike, has focused on areas of Iran 
closer to Israel and hasn't reported any strikes south of Isfahan, 800 
kilometers (500 miles) away. The U.S. is operating warships in the Arabian Sea, 
including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, within range of the school.

   Neither the U.S. military's Central Command nor the Israeli military 
immediately replied to requests for comment Monday from the AP on Bellingcat's 
analysis.