In a sobering admission to Congress on March 12, 2026, General Alexus G. Grynkewich, commander of US European Command, confirmed American responsibility for a February 28 air strike that destroyed a girls' elementary school in southern Iran. The attack killed at least 165 people – predominantly children – marking one of the deadliest military miscalculations in recent Middle Eastern history.
Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Grynkewich attributed the tragedy to a "chain of errors and mistakes" involving outdated intelligence from the Defense Intelligence Agency. The coordinates for the Tomahawk missile strike were reportedly generated using this obsolete data by US Central Command officers.
The revelation follows a New York Times report detailing preliminary findings from an ongoing Pentagon investigation. Military sources revealed to the newspaper that critical intelligence failures led to misidentification of the target, with missile fragments recovered from the site bearing clear "Made in USA" markings and identifiers from American defense contractors.
Iranian authorities have released graphic footage showing classrooms reduced to rubble and rows of small bodies being carried from the wreckage. The incident has intensified regional tensions amid questions about accountability mechanisms for coalition military operations.
