US used untested weapon in Iranian school strike – NYT

American forces reportedly fired a missile that disperses small tungsten pellets at the city of Lamerd

The US struck a school and sports hall in the southern Iranian city of Lamerd with a ballistic missile previously untested in combat, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing its own analysis of footage and weapons experts.

The attack occurred during the first wave of US and Israeli strikes on February 28 – the same day an American missile destroyed a girls’ elementary school in the Iranian city of Minab, killing 175 people, most of them children. According to Iranian officials, at least 21 people were killed in Lamerd.

The NYT said the damage from the strike is consistent with the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), which explodes above its targets, dispersing small tungsten pellets. The weapon completed its prototype phase only last year, according to the Pentagon.

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As in Minab, the targeted school and sports hall in Lamerd were located directly next to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) facility, the NYT said. The newspaper added that archival satellite imagery shows the school and hall have been walled off from the IRGC site for at least 15 years and were listed as civilian facilities on popular online mapping services, including Google Maps.

The NYT said that, since the missile is new, it is more difficult to assess whether the PrSM strikes were “intentional” or stemmed from a design flaw or faulty intelligence.

More than 1,000 civilians have been killed by US and Israeli strikes in Iran, according to official data. Although US President Donald Trump has refused to admit responsibility for the attack on the school in Minab, the Pentagon has opened an investigation into the incident.