US commanders reportedly ignored warnings that target intelligence was years out of date before a strike killed more than 150 schoolchildren in Iran.
According to a 7 July report from CNN, senior military officials received messages informing them that the intelligence about strike targets inside Iran had been gathered years ago and “needed to be re-vetted”. Regardless, the proposed Iranian targets were added to a strike list shortly before the US launched an attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School, killing more than 150 schoolchildren along with over a dozen teachers.
Two of CNN’s sources said senior commanders ignored the warnings out of “expediency,” as they did not want to significantly delay providing target lists at the outset of the war, which Trump illegally launched in February without any authorisation from the US Congress.
For months, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has repeatedly dodged questions about the strike on the school, insisting that he didn’t want to comment on an ongoing Pentagon investigation. However, one of CNN’s sources said that US military officials “knew within days how the mistake happened”, as the school was targeted based on “obviously old info.”
CNN noted that old satellite images showed the school once belonged to the same compound as an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facility. As recently as 2016, images showed “that a fence had been erected to separate the school from the rest of the base, and that a separate entrance to the school had been built”.
Rutgers Law School Professor Adil Haque, noting that intelligence on many of the targets was more than a decade old, called the US decision to proceed with attacks “inexcusable”.
The US Department of Defense has still not released its investigation into the bombing, This has drawn criticism from Palestinian-American policy analyst Yousef Munayyer, who reacted to the CNN report by describing the US military as being “quick to bomb, slow to investigate”.
The slow pace of the investigation been criticised by Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee. During a May congressional hearing, Smith grilled Admiral Brad Cooper about why the US hasn’t taken responsibility for the school strike despite clear evidence that it was at fault.
“In the past, when we’ve had these types of mistakes, they’ve been quickly acknowledged,” Smith said, “even if a further investigation is necessary to figure out prevention methods.”
Smith also criticised Hegseth for showing a “callous disregard for any sort of rules of engagement or protecting of civilian life” during his tenure as defense secretary.
Last month, President Donald Trump brushed off responsibility for the strike on the school, stating that “mistakes are made” and “war is nasty”.
Republished from Common Dreams
Brad Reed
Brad Reed is a staff writer for Common Dreams.