An early-morning airstrike on February 28 turned a girls’ primary school in Minab, in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, into a scene of devastation and mass mourning. Iranian state media and local officials say the Shajareh Tayyebe girls’ school was struck by multiple missiles while classrooms were full, killing 165 people—most of them children—and wounding dozens more.
Video circulated on social media and distributed by Iranian outlets shows a charred, half-collapsed classroom block, backpacks and books scattered in the street, and parents frantically searching through rubble for surviving children. A bereaved mother quoted by local media described her six-year-old daughter, a second-grader, among the dead and asked how a place of learning could be turned into a target.
Local prosecutors and rescue services published rising casualty figures as search teams worked through the wreckage; Minab officials put the school toll at 165 dead and 96 wounded, and Iran’s Red Crescent reported that more than 20 of the country’s 31 provinces had been struck in the wider campaign, leaving at least 201 people dead and 747 injured nationwide. Hospitals in Minab, overwhelmed by the number of bodies, resorted to refrigerated trucks to store the dead.
The school sits beside an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval base near the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for global oil shipments. Open-source video analysis cited by international outlets shows the school within roughly 61 metres of a military facility. Iranian officials and state media say the building was hit by three missiles; residents described explosions that shook the whole town and sent people running into the streets.
Tehran immediately accused the United States and Israel of responsibility. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, denounced the killing of children, saying the strikes on civilians would not go unanswered. The Iranian president called the attack a “barbaric act” and the foreign ministry asked the UN Security Council to intervene. UNESCO condemned the strike as a “serious violation of humanitarian law” and expressed shock at attacks on education.
The United States and Israel have not publicly accepted responsibility for the school strike. Washington has insisted its operations in the region target military sites and command systems and said it is reviewing reports of civilian casualties. U.S. Central Command said it was investigating the allegations and reiterated that protecting civilians is a priority.
The strike has already altered the narrative about the current U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran’s assets, undercutting claims of narrow, precision strikes limited to military targets. International humanitarian law forbids direct attacks on civilians and on facilities used primarily for education; the proximity of the school to a military base will be central to any accountability or legal assessment. UNESCO and humanitarian organizations have called for independent inquiries, and the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent networks have mobilized emergency teams to the area.
Politically, the attack has hardened Tehran’s rhetoric and risks accelerating retaliatory dynamics. Iranian officials and clerical leaders are likely to use the incident to rally domestic and regional support, while hardliners in Tehran may press for reciprocal strikes on U.S. or Israeli assets. In Washington and allied capitals, the incident will intensify scrutiny of targeting procedures and the diplomatic costs of a campaign whose stated aim is to degrade Iranian military capabilities without widening the war.
Beyond immediate reprisals, the humanitarian and strategic fallout could be wide. The death of so many schoolchildren will deepen international outrage, complicate any attempt by the U.S. or Israel to portray the campaign as narrowly measured, and increase pressure on third-party states to press for de-escalation. The proximity of the strikes to the Strait of Hormuz adds an economic dimension: disruptions to security there would have consequences for global energy markets and commercial shipping routes.
For now, the strike on Shajareh Tayyebe has become the starkest symbol of the campaign’s civilian toll. Investigations will proceed amid competing narratives; what follows may determine whether the episode becomes an isolated atrocity or a catalyst for broader escalation across the region.