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Multiple Democratic senators are demanding that the Pentagon release the findings of its investigation into a February strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed over 175 children and teachers.

Some shit you should know before you dig in: When the US-Israel-Iran war kicked off in February, one of the first reported tragedies came out of Minab, a city in southern Iran near the Strait of Hormuz. On February 28, the war’s opening day, a strike hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school, killing what Iranian officials say were more than 175 children and teachers, most of them girls no older than 12. No other single event in the war has reportedly killed as many civilians, and if the US is responsible, it would mark the American military’s deadliest civilian casualty incident since 1991. The evidence pointing at the US is substantial: Reuters broke the story in March that the military’s own preliminary probe pointed to US forces as the likely culprit, with targeting officials appearing to have used out-of-date intelligence. Video verified by CBS News and multiple weapons experts appears to capture the moment a Tomahawk cruise missile slammed into a Revolutionary Guard facility next to the school, and the US is the only party in the war with Tomahawks in its arsenal. The school sat adjacent to IRGC-controlled sites, including a barracks, and CENTCOM chief Admiral Brad Cooper told lawmakers in May that untangling what happened is “complex” since the school was located on a base actively launching Iranian cruise missiles.

260309 Shajareh Tayyebeh school rs

What’s going on now: In a letter to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand led more than two dozen Democrats in demanding the military finalize its investigation within the next week. The group, which includes Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed, wants Congress briefed and an unclassified version of the findings released to the public. They’re also demanding a prevention plan identifying “the specific corrective actions the Department will take to ensure this does not happen again.”

“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 letter says. “When a US strike kills civilians, the Department owes Congress, the American people, and the victims’ families a clear accounting of what happened and a credible plan to prevent future failures.”

Despite the demand, the Pentagon isn’t budging on releasing new information just yet. In a statement to Reuters, a spokesman said, “The investigation is ongoing. We do not have any updates to announce at this time.” This echoes what Hegseth said months ago, noting that they are “investigating.”

President Donald Trump greets Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine at Warner Hall, Marine Corps University at Quantico, Virginia on Tuesday, September 30, 2025, as he arrives for a meeting with top military leadership. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

Trump has gone further, casting doubt on US responsibility entirely. “Somebody said it was our missile, maybe it wasn’t our missile but I have seen nothing to lead me to believe it was,” he said on June 24. “I don’t think it was us.” He also insisted back in March that Iran had Tomahawks of its own, a claim he offered no evidence for and which weapons experts say is a flat-out lie.

Iran has called the strike a war crime, with President Masoud Pezeshkian writing that “attacks on schools target a nation’s future” and vowing Iran “will not remain silent or yield to these crimes.” Funerals for at least 165 victims drew massive crowds in Minab, with state media showing flag-draped coffins bearing photographs of children and excavators digging at least 100 graves.

The UN human rights chief has called for a prompt, impartial investigation, with a spokesperson noting “the onus is on the forces that carried out the attack to investigate it.”

This all comes as one report indicates the Pentagon’s investigation was actually completed weeks ago and remains unreleased, with Senate Democrats reportedly leveraging Hegseth’s travel budget to force its release.

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