Democratic senators demand release of report on US strike on Iranian school
Lawmakers say Pentagon has no justification for withholding findings into U.S. strike that killed more than 170 girls at an elementary school in Iran
WASHINGTON (MNTV) — A group of Democratic senators has demanded that the Pentagon immediately release its investigation into a U.S. military strike on an elementary school in Iran that killed more than 175 people, including dozens of children.
The group accused the Defense Department of withholding information from Congress and the American public months after the inquiry was reportedly completed, according to Anadolu Agency.
The lawmakers, led by Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Jack Reed and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, urged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander Admiral Brad Cooper to make public the findings of the Pentagon’s investigation into the February 28 strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in the southern Iranian city of Minab.
In a letter sent Monday, the senators said more than four months had passed since the attack and that Congress had yet to receive a full explanation of how one of the deadliest civilian incidents involving the U.S. military in recent years occurred.
They noted reports indicating that the Pentagon completed and submitted its internal investigation in April but has continued to keep its conclusions from lawmakers and the public.
“There is no justification for withholding an unclassified accounting of what happened, what went wrong, and what the Department is doing to prevent recurrence,” the senators wrote, arguing that transparency is essential in cases involving large-scale civilian casualties caused by U.S. military operations.
The lawmakers also cited reports suggesting that military planners relied on outdated intelligence imagery that failed to identify the presence of the elementary school before authorizing the strike.
If confirmed, they warned, the incident would expose serious failures in U.S. targeting procedures, intelligence coordination, civilian harm mitigation policies, and battlefield decision-making.
According to the senators, such deficiencies raise fundamental questions about the integrity of the Pentagon’s target selection process, the reliability of the intelligence used to authorize lethal force, and the effectiveness of safeguards intended to protect civilians during military operations.
The demand for disclosure comes amid growing scrutiny of the Trump administration’s handling of the strike. Last month, President Donald Trump said he had not reviewed the investigation and claimed he was waiting for it to be completed, despite reports that the inquiry had already been finalized weeks earlier.
Trump described the incident as “horrible” but sought to cast doubt on U.S. responsibility, suggesting that multiple missiles had been fired during the fighting and asserting that he had seen no evidence proving an American missile struck the school.
His remarks contrasted sharply with findings from several independent investigations, which concluded that the school was hit by a U.S. Tomahawk cruise missile.
Those investigations identified missile fragments and other forensic evidence linking the attack to the United States, reinforcing widespread international condemnation over the deaths of more than 175 civilians, many of them schoolchildren.
The senators called on the Pentagon to finalize any remaining administrative steps by July 20 and provide Congress with the complete, unredacted investigation, alongside an unclassified version that can be released publicly.
They argued that withholding the findings only deepens concerns over accountability and reinforces perceptions that civilian casualties resulting from U.S. military operations are routinely concealed from public scrutiny.
The dispute has intensified criticism of Washington’s conduct during the conflict with Iran, with opponents accusing the Trump administration of expanding military operations while resisting transparency over their humanitarian consequences.
Rights advocates argue that meaningful accountability requires full disclosure of the investigation, independent oversight, and concrete measures to prevent similar attacks on civilians in future military operations.
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