US commander deflects responsibility for Iran school strike that killed 155

A top U.S. military commander on Tuesday again declined to accept responsibility for a February airstrike on a southern Iranian school that killed 155 people, telling a congressional oversight panel the investigation remains "complex" and unfinished.

The evasion prolongs a pattern of non-answers over the Feb. 28 strike in Minab, a city in southern Iran — an attack The New York Times and CNN have attributed to a U.S. Tomahawk cruise missile, a weapon Iran does not possess.

Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, told the panel that "the school itself is located on an active IRGC cruise missile base," according to the Korea Times. Cooper cited the investigation's complexity as his reason for declining to formally assign responsibility for the strike.

The Feb. 28 attack in Minab killed 155 people in total. Among the dead were 120 students — 73 boys and 47 girls — along with 26 teachers, seven parents, a school bus driver and one other adult. Iran's initial reported death toll exceeded 175 before authorities revised the figure downward.

House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith, a Democrat, confronted Cooper during the hearing. "In the past, when we've had these types of mistakes, they have been quickly acknowledged, even if a further investigation is necessary," Smith said, according to the Korea Times. When Cooper again stopped short of accepting responsibility, Smith responded: "So that's a 'no.' We will not take responsibility for something we very obviously did."

House Democrats have filed impeachment proceedings against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in connection with the school strike.

President Donald Trump initially suggested Iran might have been responsible for the deaths, telling reporters that Iran had "no accuracy whatsoever." Israel separately denied any involvement in the attack. The Tomahawk cruise missile — identified by reporting cited by the Korea Times as the weapon used — is not part of Iran's military arsenal.

AFP said it has been unable to independently verify the accounts of the incident carried by Iranian state media.

Cooper promised to release the investigation's findings once complete but offered no timeline, leaving lawmakers without a definitive answer on who authorized the strike — the deadliest incident attributed to U.S. forces in recent years — as impeachment proceedings against Hegseth move forward.