Iranian officials say an elementary school in the capital, Tehran, was hit during attacks carried out by the United States and Israel.
Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, posted a video on the social platform X on Friday that he said showed the damage to Shahid Hamedani School, located near Niloufar Square in Tehran. The video appeared to display the school before and after the strike, though Baghaei did not provide details about casualties or the exact circumstances of the attack.
If confirmed, it would mark the fourth school in Iran struck since the war began.
The first reported case occurred when the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in the southern city of Minab was hit on the opening day of U.S. and Israeli strikes. According to United Nations experts, that attack killed 160 children and five staff members.
Some Israeli-linked online accounts claimed the school was part of a facility associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. However, an investigation by Al Jazeera using satellite imagery and other records found the school had been clearly separate from a nearby military compound for at least a decade.
The analysis also suggested that the strike pattern raised serious questions about the intelligence used in the attack and whether the school might have been intentionally targeted.
Amid growing scrutiny, the United States said its military was examining the incident. According to Reuters, two U.S. officials said investigators believe American forces may have carried out the strike, though no final determination has been made.
Volker Turk urged Washington to quickly conduct a transparent investigation. Speaking in Geneva, he said the United Nations had requested a prompt, impartial inquiry and stressed the importance of accountability and compensation for victims.
Additional attacks on schools were reported earlier in the week. Iranian state media said missiles fired by U.S. and Israeli forces struck two schools in the town of Parand on Thursday. Photos released by the Fars News Agency showed damaged classrooms and debris, while nearby residential buildings were also reportedly affected.
The children’s agency UNICEF said Friday that at least 181 children were among more than 1,300 people killed in the strikes across Iran so far.
Under international law, intentionally targeting a school would constitute a war crime. If U.S. involvement in such an attack were confirmed, it could become one of the most serious cases of civilian casualties linked to U.S. military actions in the Middle East in decades.
Source AL Jazeera