The Minab School Tragedy

Saturday 15 August 2026 marked the 168th day of the US-Israeli invasion of Iran. People in Iran and across the world including in the Iranian missions abroad commemorated the memory of the 168 people killed in the US attacks on Minab School.

On Saturday morning of 28 February 2026, the US and Israel launched a coordinated attack on Iran. One of the first sites attacked by the United States in the early hour of the invasion was the Shajareye Tayyebeh School in the southern city of Minab in Hormuzgan Province, off the shores of the Strait of Hormuz. According to witness accounts corroborated by satellite-based analyses, the area of the school was hit by multiple US Tomahawk bombs. The roof of the school collapsed on students, killing 120 schoolchildren. A total of 168 people were killed and several others injured in the US attack. Saturday 15 August 2026 marked the 168th day of the US-Israeli invasion of Iran. People in Iran and across the world including in the Iranian missions abroad commemorated the memory of the 168 people killed in the US attacks on Minab School.

The tragedy at the Shajarah Tayyiba MINAB School became the deadliest attack on an educational facility in the US-Israel invasion. The images that emerged from the rubble of the destroyed school were reviewed and verified in person by journalists from international media including the Sky News, CNN, BBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Reuters, and global independent fact-finding groups.

Several international organizations condemned the US attack and concluded, in separate reports, that the deadly US bombing of the Iranian school constituted a grave violation of humanitarian law and is a war crime.

The US president Donald Trump and war secretary Pete Hegseth, however, evaded the responsibility of the attack as against the abundant evidence published by global media, independent investigators and fact-finding institutes which demonstrated that US Tomahawk bombs were used to demolish the Minab School. The US unaccountability has sparked international outcry especially by the press.

More than five months after the attack, the Pentagon had still not provided an explanation for why the US military fired Tomahawk cruise missiles at the elementary school. A confidential Pentagon investigation had confirmed that the attack was the work of the US military, but its findings were never fully released. CNN reported, citing informed sources, that the US military command had refused for months to order a formal investigation to clarify the scope of the attack.

Among the survivors, one student later spoke of a moment he would never forget: his friend Arash was identified by his socks, because nothing else was left of his body.