REPORT: US Responsible For Strike On Iranian School That Killed Nearly 200

A preliminary military investigation found the U.S. is responsible for the deadly bombing of an Iranian elementary school, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

A Tomahawk cruise missile killed at least 175 people, including children, on Feb. 28 when it hit the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school. The bombing was reportedly the result of a targeting mistake by the U.S. military, which was conducting strikes on an adjacent Iranian base, sources familiar with the report’s contents told The New York Times.

According to the Times, officers at the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) created the target coordinates for the strike using outdated data given to them by the Defense Intelligence Agency. The “target coding” labeled the school building as a military target when it was passed to CENTCOM.

Investigators remain unsure how the error was made, given that many officers across several agencies would have been responsible for verifying the information they received from the Defense Intelligence Agency, according to the Times. As of Wednesday, officials were looking into whether artificial intelligence models, data crunching programs or anything else were responsible for the bombing, though they suspected a human error caused it.

The U.S. is also the only country involved in the Iranian conflict to use Tomahawk missiles.

The Pentagon told the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation that the incident continues to be “under investigation.”

Satellite imagery found that the school was damaged by a precision strike that occurred at the same time as attacks on the naval base, according to The Times. The base was hit again about two hours later.