US investigators believe attack on Iranian girls' school likely carried out by US forces

Military investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for the alleged attack on an Iranian girls' school that killed a large number of children on Saturday, but have not yet reached a final conclusion, the British Guardian reports, citing two US officials.

Reuters was unable to determine additional details about the investigation, including what evidence contributed to this preliminary assessment, what type of ammunition was used, who was responsible or why the US might target the school.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth confirmed on Wednesday that the US military is investigating the incident.

Two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters, did not rule out the possibility that new evidence could emerge pointing to another responsible actor.

A girls' school in Minab, in southern Iran, was hit on the first day of US and Israeli airstrikes on the country. Iran's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, said 150 schoolgirls were killed in the attack. Reuters could not independently confirm the death toll, according to the Guardian.

The Pentagon referred questions to Central Command, whose spokesman, Captain Timothy Hawkins, said: "It would not be appropriate for us to comment given that the incident is under investigation."

The White House did not directly comment on the investigation, but spokeswoman Caroline Levitt said in a statement: "While the Department of War is currently investigating this matter, it is the Iranian regime that is targeting civilians and children, not the United States of America."

Asked during a media briefing on Wednesday about the incident, Hegseth said: "We are investigating it. We, of course, never target civilian targets. But we are looking into the case and conducting an investigation."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Monday that the U.S. would not intentionally target the school.

"The Department of War would investigate this if it was our attack, and I would refer you to them for that matter," Rubio said.

Israeli and US forces have so far divided their strikes in Iran geographically and by type of target, said a senior Israeli official and a source with direct knowledge of the joint planning. While Israel has targeted missile launch sites in western Iran, the US has attacked similar targets, as well as naval ones, in the south.

The UN human rights office called for an investigation into the attack on the school, without specifying who it held responsible.

"The responsibility lies with the forces that carried out the attack to conduct an investigation," UN human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a press briefing in Geneva.

Footage of the girls' mass funeral on Tuesday was shown on Iranian state television.

Their small coffins were covered with Iranian flags and were carried from a truck through a large crowd of people towards the burial site.

Deliberately targeting a school, hospital, or any other civilian structure would likely constitute a war crime under international humanitarian law.

If the US role were confirmed, this attack would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of conflict in the Middle East.