UN demands swift probe into ‘US strike’ on Iran girls school

• Media investigation, officials suggest American forces ‘most likely’ responsible
• At least 150 killed in Saturday strike
• Washington to investigate the incident

GENEVA: The United Nations rights chief demanded a swift and transparent probe Friday into the killing of at least 150 people in a deadly strike on an Iranian elementary school, as a media investigation and US officials indicated the United States was likely responsible.

The strike hit the Shajare Tayyebeh elementary school in the southern Iranian town of Minab on the first day of a war last Saturday, according to Iranian officials.

UN rights chief Volker Turk condemned “this absolutely tragic incident” and said he hoped investigations would be “prompt, and that they will be done in full transparency”.

“We also expect accountability to be served, because obviously mistakes were clearly made,” he told reporters in Geneva.

Neither the US nor Israel has claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred near sites controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The US Department of Defence has said it is investigating the incident.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that US military statements about attacking naval targets near the Strait of Hormuz, where an IRGC base is located, “suggest they were most likely to have carried out the strike”.

The newspaper’s analysis of social media posts and witness media indicated the school was struck at the same time as IRGC naval sites.

Separately, two unidentified US officials told Reuters that military investigators “believe it is likely” that US forces were responsible. General Dan Caine, the top US military officer, said on Wednesday that the US had been carrying out strikes in southern Iran at the time.

NYT reported that he presented a map indicating an area including Minab was targeted. Caine noted that Israel had been operating mainly in northern Iran.

Turk welcomed the US investigation but stressed the need for action.“We need this to happen very quickly and we need to also make sure that there is accountability as well as redress for the victims,” he insisted, adding that the attack raised “significant concerns about the respect for international humanitarian law”.

A school, he said, was “clearly a civilian institution that should never be attacked”. The Norway-based rights group Hengaw said the school had about 170 students present during its morning session. There is “a horrible, tragic lesson to be learnt when girls are killed in this way”, Turk said.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2026