US Missile Strike on Iran School: Video Emerges, Raising Questions

Video footage released by Iranian state media appears to demonstrate a U.S. Cruise missile striking a compound near a girl’s school in Minab, Iran, where approximately 175 students and staff were killed a little over a week ago. The incident, which occurred on March 8, 2026, has sparked international concern and raised questions about the extent of U.S. Military involvement in the region.

The seven-second video, posted by Mehr News, an Iranian state news agency, depicts a missile impacting a building within a walled compound. This compound reportedly housed both a health clinic and was formerly part of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval base.

The strike occurred shortly after the school was hit, with smoke already visible rising from the area where the school was located. Iranian state media reports indicate a death toll between 165 and 180, with a significant number of victims being students.

While precise identification is difficult due to video quality, experts, including Jeffrey Lewis, a professor of global security at Middlebury College, believe the missile is consistent with a Tomahawk cruise missile. The U.S. Is the sole known operator of these missiles, and officials stated U.S. Military forces were operating in southern Iran at the time of the strike.

Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated, “The first shooters at sea were Tomahawks unleashed by the United States Navy.” President Trump, speaking from Air Force One, accused Iran of responsibility for the school bombing, citing their “inaccurate” munitions. However, Lewis noted the missile in the video did not align with known Iranian missile designs.

NPR verified the video’s location through analysis of details matching the clinic and surrounding area, and confirmed the location via geolocation by the online research group Bellingcat here.

The strike targeted multiple buildings within the compound, including the school and the clinic, as revealed by satellite imagery analyzed by NPR. The imagery suggests a precision strike, hitting almost all buildings within the compound.

The targeted compound was historically part of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval base, though reports suggest it had been largely abandoned for over a decade. The school itself was located within close proximity to the base perimeter, and the clinic had been walled off from the base in 2023 and 2024, opening in 2025, according to local reports. The clinic’s opening was reportedly overseen by IRGC chief Hossein Salami, who was later killed in an Israeli strike.

The incident raises questions about the accuracy of targeting information and the potential for civilian casualties in military operations. Experts suggest the school may have been unintentionally struck due to outdated data. The U.S. Military has not yet commented on the specific details of the strike.

NPR’s RAD team contributed to this report.