A school turned memorial: What remains of Iran's Minab site after deadly strike

Families often gather at the shattered remains of the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab, southern Iran to grieve and remember the children who were killed in a US airstrike on the school during the first day of the war.The school, once filled with classrooms, desks and children's drawings, now lies in ruins. Concrete hangs from exposed reinforcing bars, while classroom desks and chairs remain scattered inside and among the rubble. Colourful tree and flower decorations that once adorned the walls have survived amid the destruction.As volunteers search through the wreckage, they continue to recover remnants of the children's lives, including notebooks and a drawing stencil. Each item offers a small reminder of the children who were inside the school when it was hit.At a section of Minab's cemetery set aside for those killed at the school, families continue to mourn. Relatives return to clean the children's graves and pay their respects, keeping alive the memory of those lost in the strike.Some 120 children were killed when at least one missile hit the school on February 28, according to the account provided by the Associated Press, although a final accounting of those killed has not yet been made.Iranian state media have said 168 people were killed in that strike, most of them children.Why was the school hit?Trump initially blamed Iran after details of the strike emerged."In my opinion, based on what I've seen, that was done by Iran…We think it was done by Iran, because they're very inaccurate with their munitions, they have no accuracy whatsoever, it was done by Iran", Trump said on March 1.However, expert video analysis, cited by the BBC, showed that the IRGC complex next to the school was hit by a precision-guided Tomahawk missile, neither possessed by neither Iran nor Israel.Defence secretary Pete Hegseth said that US forces "never target civilian targets" and were investigating the tragedy. He later announced a higher-level investigation, led by an officer from outside US Central Command (Centcom), BBC reported.Centcom is responsible for carrying out military strikes and operations targeting Iranian assets and infrastructure.However, the US is yet to release findings of the investigation into the bombing.In May, Centcom head told a congressional committee that the investigation was "complex" as the school was "on an active IRGC cruise missile base", a claim rejected by Iran's foreign ministry as a "baseless fabrication".According to several US media reports that cited people familiar with the US military investigation, the preliminary findings concluded that it was likely outdated data supplied by the US Defence Intelligence Agency that led to the school being treated as part of a military site.Historical satellite images reportedly show the school area was previously part of the IRGC complex, but has been walled off since 2016 and has its own entrances and yards.Catch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.