The United States used “outdated intelligence” to carry out a missile attack that struck an Iranian school, a report has found.
The Pentagon is investigating the strike, which killed around 170 children and 14 teachers, according to Iranian state media.
Evidence is mounting that the US was responsible for the attack on the school in Minab, southern Iran, on February 28, which has prompted international condemnation.
Fragments of an American Tomahawk missile were found at the site, which is next to an Iranian naval base.
The US Central Command created the target co-ordinates using old data from the Defence Intelligence Agency, sources briefed on the investigation told the New York Times.
They said questions remained over why the outdated information was not double-checked and stressed that the findings were preliminary.
Last weekend US President Donald Trump said he believed that Iran was responsible for the attack “based on what I’ve seen”.
Two days later, he said it was “Iran or somebody else”, saying the Tomahawk missile was “very generic” and “sold to other countries”. He added: “I just don’t know enough about it”.
Iran is not thought to own Tomahawks.
Apart from the US, the weapon is used by Britain, Australia and the Netherlands.
John Kennedy, a Republican senator and a close ally of Trump, apologised on Tuesday NZT for the strike, which he called a “terrible” mistake.
He said: “Other countries do that sort of thing intentionally, like Russia. We would never do that intentionally.
“I think the department is investigating it now, and I’m sorry. I’m just so sorry it happened.”
On Wednesday, it emerged that Pete Hegseth, the US Defence Secretary, had sacked staff responsible for preventing civilian war deaths before the strike.
Hegseth had effectively gutted the Civilian Protection Centre of Excellence, which was set up under his predecessor, Lloyd Austin, to prevent, mitigate, and investigate harm to civilians.
He cannot abolish the agency because it has been approved by an Act of Congress. But he has cut around 90% of its workforce, according to Politico.
The team that handles civilian casualties at the US Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, has been cut from 10 to one.
The US Defence Secretary has taken a sledgehammer to policies and rules inside the Pentagon that he sees as “woke” or working against his warrior ethos, including banning fat generals and facial hair.
In a speech in September, he said: “We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralise, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality and authority for warfighters.”
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