THE US defence chief has been challenged over what his department knew before launching an air strike that killed around 110 children at a school in Iran.
It comes as huge crowds gathered yesterday in a funeral procession for 32 of the children and other civilians killed in the strike in Minab.
Hundreds were seen in videos filmed by Al Jazeera in the streets waving Iranian flags while carrying coffins along the road.
Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, has been giving evidence to senators this week as the Trump administration seeks an additional $88 billion to continue the war in Iran, which has already costed $37.5bn.
Following his appearance on Tuesday, Sky News challenged Hegseth on the Minab school bombing, which a security insider told the broadcaster that "human error was responsible" for the deaths, and that the Trump administration is "undermining transparency" by failing to fully probe the decision to launch the strikes.
He failed to answer to the reporter, walking past the Sky News cameras without speaking.
Several expert reports was likely a targeted missile strike by the US Air Force, potentially due to outdated information about the location of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval base.
Eyewitness testimony given to the Middle East Eye by two Red Crescent medics and the parents of one of the victims also allege that the school was subject to a "double tap" strike, when an initial bombardment is followed by a second. Other reports including those from the Iranian Ministry of Education suggest that the school may have been hit by three or more missiles.
Analysis by the New York Times suggests the school was targeted as part of US strikes on a neighbouring building which had previously housed the base.
The analysis identified at least six buildings used by the IRGC which were hit during the attack, along with the school, indicating the strike was deliberate.
Wes Bryant, a national security analyst who served in the US Air Force and was a senior adviser on civilian harm at the Pentagon, told The NYT that it appeared the school had been hit with “picture perfect” target strikes.
Janina Dill, an expert on international law at Oxford University, wrote on Twitter/X that even if the strike was a misidentification – and the attacker believed that the school had been a part of the neighbouring IRGC base – it would still be “a very serious violation of international law”.
“Attackers are under an obligation to do everything feasible to verify the status of targeted object,” she wrote.
The US military is conducting an internal investigation, but this has been criticised for moving too slowly after separate investigations from international groups like UNESCO and Amnesty, and media organisations like The Guardian, Reuters and Al Jazeera determined it was clear that the compound was not in use by the Iranian military.
While a final conclusion has not been reached, initial findings from the review pointed towards the strike having been conducted by the US.
