US ignored intelligence warnings before triple-tap strike on Minab school: Report

Senior US military commanders reportedly bypassed database warnings that intelligence on targets in Iran was outdated before approving strikes at the start of aggression against Iran, including one that hit a primary school in Minab.

According to a CNN report, messages embedded in the Pentagon's targeting system warned that the intelligence required re-verification before sites could be approved for strikes.

Senior officers nevertheless authorized targets, reportedly for "expediency" as military planners rushed to assemble strike lists after US President Donald Trump ordered the start of aggression.

The sources said the decision directly contributed to the strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in the southern Iranian city of Minab on February 28, the first day of the US-Israeli aggression against Iran.

The Pentagon claimed to have launched an investigation shortly after the deadly strike, but months later, its findings have not been released. A White House official told CNN that "this investigation is ongoing."

The strike killed 168 souls, mostly children aged between 7 and 12, making it one of the deadliest incidents involving civilian casualties in recent US military history.

Iran says the school was not struck accidentally.

Officials say the two-story girls' primary school was hit in a triple-tap attack involving three Tomahawk cruise missiles. The roof of the building, decorated with pink flowers and green leaves, collapsed onto students inside.

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council in March, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described the attack as "the calculated, phased assault."

He noted that the attack reflected a broader pattern of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure.

"The targeting of civilian infrastructure is intentional," Araghchi said, adding that more than 600 schools had been damaged and over 1,000 students and teachers killed or wounded during the US-Israeli aggression which came to a temporary halt on April 8 following a Pakistani-mediated ceasefire.

Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations Amir Saeid Iravani also rejected any suggestion that the strike resulted from error, telling the UN Security Council in June that the United States must be held fully accountable for its "most horrific crime" against a primary school.

"Many victims remained trapped beneath the rubble for hours, and several bodies were so badly injured that they could not be identified," Iravani told the 15-member Council.

He stressed that the children were civilians protected under international humanitarian law and were exercising their "fundamental right to education" when the school was attacked.

"The attack on Minab constitutes two of the Security Council's six grave violations against children: the killing and maiming of children and attacks on schools," Iravani said, adding that the United States had committed a war crime.

"The memory of the children of Minab demands justice, accountability, and action—not silence," he said.

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