Experts have weighed in after controversy grew following a girls’ elementary school that was struck by a missile in southern Iran. Iranian Red Crescent Society has confirmed that more than 160 people were killed in the attack, most of them children. Expert sources are now revealing that the United States may have mistakenly hit the school, which was part of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military complex.
Although Donald Trump has continued to blame the regime, Iran-based news outlet Mehr News Agency posted a video on Sunday that shows a Tomahawk cruise missile hitting the complex. Although it is not seen hitting the school in the video, the smoke and dust in the air suggest that the school had already been struck. The video was later uploaded online by former U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician Trevor Ball.
🚨 CONFIRMED: Footage reviewed and geolocated by Bellingcat confirms US tomahawk missiles hit the girls’ primary school in southern Iran that killed 180 people, most of them children.
Researcher Trevor Ball notes Israel does not possess Tomahawk missiles. United States does. https://t.co/qo7WUtRzKu
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) March 8, 2026
Ball, who now works as a researcher for the Ballingcat, an investigative group, said on X that the footage shows smoke rising from the area. “New video footage shows a US Tomahawk missile hitting an IRGC facility in Minab, Iran, on Feb 28, showing for the first time that the US struck the area. The footage also shows smoke already rising from the vicinity of the girls’ school, where 175 people were reportedly killed.”
When some commentators argued that it could be from Iran, he posted proof that the regime’s missiles differ largely in appearance. “Quite a few replies are saying this video shows an Iranian Soumar or similar missile. This is incorrect. These missiles have a bottom-mounted engine, as opposed to the Tomahawk, whose engine is internal to the main missile body, with a small air intake,” he stated.
The New York Times was able to conduct an independent investigation to confirm the footage. ABC News geolocated the video and confirmed the location as the explosion site from the February 28 attack.
A video released by Mehr News, and geolocated by Bellingcat, shows the missile hitting a building near the school. This image shows a comparison between the Tomahawk missile that hit near the school and Tomahawk missiles flying over Tehran earlier in the conflict. pic.twitter.com/wv0MekFJpR
— Trevor Ball (@Easybakeovensz) March 8, 2026
In a conversation with the media outlet, Sam Lair, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, confirmed that the appearance of the missile in the video resembles that of the Tomahawk. He stated, “I do believe these point towards U.S. responsibility for the strike in the area.”
N.R. Jenzen-Jones, director of Armament Research Services, agreed with Lair’s observation, “That indicates it is a U.S. strike.”
However, while he believes that the US did attack the military complex, he still refuses to blame the US for the deadly strike on the elementary school without proper evidence. “We can only be definitive about the one in the video. Of course, it makes it more likely the surrounding targets were hit by the U.S., but it doesn’t give certainty.”
