In the initial stages of the American/Israeli war on Iran, the United States launched hundreds of Tomahawk cruise missiles on Iran. Many of these missiles were directed at the IRGC’s naval compounds on the southern coast. 

The Tomahawk, developed by Raytheon Technologies, is a subsonic cruise missile which operates on a turbofan engine as well as a solid-fuel booster, allowing it to travel at high speeds up to 1500 nautical miles. The Tomahawk can be launched from a boat or on the ground, and at a cost of $2M per missile has had an 85% hit rate since initial use in the Gulf War. 

The sheer scale of the Tomahawk deployment in the opening hours of the conflict reflects the magnitude of the American commitment to the operation. Military analysts estimated that this was one of the largest single-night cruise missile barrages since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Each missile follows a preprogrammed flight path using terrain contour matching and GPS guidance, making mid-course corrections nearly impossible once launched. In densely developed urban and semi-urban areas, even a margin of error of several hundred feet can mean the difference between a military compound and a mass casualty event. Critics of the strike campaign have pointed to this precision-versus-reality gap as a central concern, arguing that the sheer volume of launches statistically increases the likelihood of civilian casualties regardless of the intended targets. 

Of course, the response to these concerns is that Iran chose to set up a school right next to a military base. This mirrors Western and Israeli arguments that casualties in Israeli strikes in the Middle East are not Israel’s fault, but the fault of local governing bodies who endanger civilians by placing military infrastructure in civilian areas. While this is certainly a valid point in many cases, many hold the United States to a higher standard of precision strikes and civilian protection and argue that striking the compound without hitting the school may have been possible. 

On February 28, 2026, during the opening phase of the war, a missile launched by an unidentified party struck Shajarah Tayyebeh all-girls school in Iran. Initial reports of about 50 deaths soon turned into a death toll of 165-175, mostly girls aged 7-12. 

One important factor in understanding the incident is the physical location of the school itself. The Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school was located in the city of Minab in Iran’s Hormozgan province, near the Persian Gulf. The school building sat very close to facilities belonging to the IRGC Navy, specifically near the Sayyid al-Shuhada military complex. Satellite imagery and investigative reporting indicate that the building had originally been part of a military compound years earlier, but by at least 2016 the school had been separated from the base

by walls and was operating as a civilian educational institution. At the time of the strike, the building functioned as an all-girls elementary school and classes were underway during the morning school day. 

In the aftermath of the explosion, large numbers of parents and local residents rushed to the site to search for children trapped in the rubble. Emergency responders, including workers from the Iranian Red Crescent Society, attempted to rescue survivors using both heavy equipment and manual digging through debris. Images and videos from the scene showed damaged classrooms, collapsed walls, and school supplies scattered among the rubble. According to reporting from international media outlets, local morgues and hospitals were overwhelmed as casualties were brought in throughout the day. Funerals for victims began soon afterward, with many families mourning the loss of multiple children from the same household. 

The strike received immediate backlash from all parties involved. Many news agencies initially reported it was likely carried out by Israel, while Donald Trump said he thought it was done by Iran themselves and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has said time after time that it was being investigated, including in an interview with 60 minutes on March 8th. 

New analysis seems to rule out the possibility of Iran as the culprit. Specifically, an article made by geolocation expert Carlos Gonzales and former US military weapons expert Trevor Ball state that the missile that hit the school was most likely a Tomahawk missile. Iran doesn’t have Tomahawk missiles. Perhaps more importantly, neither does Israel. 

Their reasoning includes verified video showing a US Tomahawk missile striking an Iranian compound next to the school. This strike was confirmed to destroy a medical clinic in the area. Satellite imagery shows the impact zone of the strike as a red cone. It also shows the school just outside of this impact zone.

If this is the impact zone of one Tomahawk cruise missile, and it’s estimated that hundreds were launched by the United States, it seems that the most likely explanation is that an American strike hit the school. 

The most important thing to note is that no culprit has been confirmed by any official bodies. The situation is still unfolding and all available information comes from journalists and independent analysts. As the United States continues to investigate, undoubtedly along with international humanitarian organizations, the world will inevitably learn exactly why ~170 children were killed.