Military Madness > Scores of kids killed in Iran school, apparently by American Tomahawk missile

 

Iran school explosion independent investigation points to U.S. strikes

By Julia Frankel and Aamer Madhani  The Associated Press

Posted March 9, 2026 9:40 am

 3 min read

The investigative group Bellingcat says newly released video “appears to contradict” U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that Iran was responsible for an explosion at an Iranian school that killed over 165 people at the start of the war raging in the Mideast.

It comes as mounting evidence points to U.S. culpability for the Feb. 28 strike, which hit a school adjacent to a Revolutionary Guard base in Minab, Iran, in the country’s southern Hormozgan Province. Experts interviewed by The Associated Press, citing satellite image analysis, say the school was likely struck amid a quick succession of bombs dropped on the compound.

The video shared by Bellingcat is a three-second clip of a video taken the day the school was struck and circulated Sunday by Iran’s semiofficial Mehr news agency. The video shows a munition falling on a building, sending a dark plume into the air that mingles with smoke that likely came from earlier strikes on the compound. Trevor Ball, a Bellingcat researcher, geolocated the video to a site near the school, something also done by the AP.

2:22

Iran asks U.S. ‘what threat did our school children pose?’ after deadly Minab strike

Ball identified the munition as a Tomahawk cruise missile — which only the U.S. is known to possess in this war. It’s the first evidence of a munition used in the strike.

U.S. Central Command has acknowledged using Tomahawk missiles in this war and even released a photo of the USS Spruance, part of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group located within range of the school, firing a Tomahawk missile on Feb. 28.

Complicating any assessment of the incident is the lack of images of bomb fragments from the blast. No independent agency has reached the site during the war to investigate.

When asked by a reporter Saturday whether the U.S. was responsible for the blast, which killed mostly children, Trump responded, without providing evidence: “No, in my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran.” Trump added that Iran is “very inaccurate” with their munitions. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth quickly chimed in to say the U.S. was investigating.

Janina Dill, an expert on international law at Oxford University, wrote on X that even if the strike was a misidentification — and the attacker believed that the school had been a part of the neighboring IRGC base — it would still be “a very serious violation of international law.”

“Attackers are under an obligation to do everything feasible to verify the status of targeted object,” she wrote.

3:40

Iran names its new supreme leader as attacks grow on all front

Several factors point to a U.S. strike.

One is the launching of an assessment of the incident by the U.S. military. According to the Pentagon’s instructions on processes for mitigating civilian harm, an assessment is launched after a group of investigators make an initial determination that the U.S. military may bear culpability.

A U.S. official told the AP that the strike was likely U.S. The official spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the sensitive matter.

Another is the location of the school — next to the Revolutionary Guard base and close to barracks for a naval unit. The U.S. military has focused on naval targets and acknowledged strikes in the province, including one in the vicinity of the school. Israel, which has denied conducting the strike, has focused on areas of Iran closer to Israel and hasn’t reported any strikes south of Isfahan, 800 kilometers (500 miles) away.

Neither the U.S. military’s Central Command nor the Israeli military immediately replied to requests for comment Monday from the AP on Bellingcat’s analysis.

Speaking about the U.S. operation at a press conference March 2, Hegseth said: “America, regardless of what so-called international institutions say, is unleashing the most lethal and precise air power campaign in history.”

“No stupid rules of engagement,” he said.

“No politically correct wars. We fight to win, and we don’t waste time or lives.”

Military Madness > As horrific as it is, War can't come close to comparing to the horrors of Child Sexual Abuse

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Repeat from my other blog:

Brown University estimates more than 4.5 million people

have died in wars since 9/11

But there is a far, far greater atrocity happening!

By Matt Bernardini

Afghans inspect a damaged vehicle after it was used to fire rockets toward the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2021. A report by Brown University's Cost of War Project published on Tuesday has found that more than 4.5 million people have been killed as a result of wars since 9/11. File Photo by Bashir Darwish/UPI | License Photo

May 16 (UPI) -- More than 4.5 million people have died from wars since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a new study from the Costs of War project at Brown University's Watson Institute.

The report estimated that between 906,000 to 937,000 people have been killed as a direct result of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia. Furthermore, as many as 3.6 million people have died indirectly from war-related problems such as economic collapse, food insecurity, destruction of public health facilities, environmental contamination, and recurring violence.

Notice that all 7 of those countries named are Muslim countries.

The report specifically cited the U.S. role in these foreign conflicts after the 2001 terror attacks on U.S. soil.

"These countries have experienced the most violent wars in which the U.S. government has been involved in the name of counterterrorism since 2001," the Cost of War project said. "The report points out that the true impacts are so vast and complex that they are unquantifiable and, thus, does not generate a precise mortality figure, but instead provides a reasonable and conservative estimate."

Stephanie Savell, the Costs of War co-director and author of the report, said the United States has a responsibility to repair the damage done by its war efforts.

"The United States government, while not solely responsible for the damage, has a significant obligation to invest in humanitarian assistance and reconstruction in post-9/11 war zones," Savell said in a statement. "The U.S. government could do far more than it currently is to act on this responsibility."

It might be partly because they are all still war zones. What's the point of rebuilding if only to blow it up again?

In March, the Senate voted to repeal legislation passed 20 years ago that authorized the use of American military forces in Iraq.

The bipartisan bill was co-authored by Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.

"Finally, the Senate voted to formally end the decades-long Gulf and Iraq Wars. Proud to lead the bill to get this done," Kaine said in a statement following the vote.

"The mission is over, and the war authorizations against Iraq are now outdated and unnecessary," Kaine said. "It's time to repeal them."

While 4.5 million deaths occurred over 22 years, this is an insignificant number compared to the greatest atrocity happening in the world today - Child Sexual Abuse. My updated statistics reveal that there are between 600 million and 6 billion events of child sexual abuse in the last 18 years.

Child sexual abuse in its myriad forms causes damage to children that usually lasts through their lifetime. Often referred to as "soul murder" or "destruction of innocence", few people other than survivors understand the extraordinary damage that child sexual abuse causes. Even fewer are interested in talking about this issue which is far and away the worst atrocity in the world.

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Military Madness > British troops in Afghanistan for 8 years - 64 child casualties, or, perhaps twice that

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Dozens of Afghan children died during British military action

By Clyde Hughes

A U.S. Marine assigned to Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force shows his video camera to children awaiting evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 22, 2021. A new report said at least 64 children died during British operations in Afghanistan. File Photo by Gunnery Sgt. Melissa Marnell/USMC/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 9 (UPI) -- A London-based war-violence research watchdog said in a new study Wednesday that dozens of Afghan children were killed during military actions by British forces, and the government paid out an average of $1,884 for each death.

The nonprofit Action on Armed Violence said it has confirmed that 64 Afghan children died in action involving the British military from 2006-2014, some four times higher than previously thought. The organization said the actual number of deaths could be as high as 135.

The British Ministry of Defense previously said 16 Afghan children died following British military action.

The organization, which analyzed compensation payments to Afghan families, said records beyond the 64 confirmed child deaths were not clear. Information in those reports mentioned terms such as "son," "daughter" or "nephew," without confirmation of ages.

"Of course, it is possible to be an adult son, daughter or nephew but Afghanistan has a young population, the median age is 18, so the likelihood of someone's child being a minor is high," the report said. "Even if just half of these additional victims were under 18, that would bring the number of children killed by British forces to 100."

The report went on to say it found no evidence of British forces specifically targeting children in the incidents."

Did they find any evidence that they deliberately avoided targeting children?

A report last year from Action on Armed Violence said Britain paid out $944,348.80 in compensation for almost 300 civilian deaths during the Afghanistan conflict. At the time, that included 86 children and 203 adult civilians.