President Donald Trump has cast doubt on the possibility that American forces were responsible for the fatal strike on a girls' school in Iran that killed more than 175 children and teachers. Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said he had seen no evidence linking the United States to the attack and suggested that the school may have been hit amid the barrage of missiles exchanged during the Iran war.
Trump's Remarks on the Investigation
“I have to wait for it (the investigation) to be complete. I don’t know that they’re ever going to solve that problem,” Trump said. “I don’t think it’s gonna be us…Somebody said it was our missile. Well, maybe it wasn’t our missile. I’ve seen nothing to lead me to believe that it was. There were plenty of missiles being flown by other people.”
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who appeared alongside the president, said the Pentagon was treating the investigation seriously and would release its findings at the appropriate time. “We’ve taken the investigation very seriously, and when the appropriate time is right, whatever that outcome is,” Hegseth said.
Shift from Earlier Comments
The latest remarks mark a shift from Trump’s earlier comments last week, when he stated that nobody had intentionally targeted the school and pledged to respect the outcome of the investigation. The strike occurred on 28 February in Minab, southern Iran, on the first day of the US/Israeli-Iran war. The attack destroyed a girls’ school and killed more than 175 pupils and teachers, making it one of the deadliest civilian incidents of the conflict.
Preliminary Findings
In March, Reuters reported that preliminary findings from a US military investigation suggested American forces were likely responsible for the strike, although investigators had not reached a final conclusion. The Pentagon investigation remains ongoing, and Trump expressed skepticism about its outcome. “I don’t think it’s gonna be us,” he reiterated.
