A U.S. Tomahawk cruise missile struck an Iranian school in February, and reports have circulated that more than 100 children were killed. As Washington contemplates what many describe as a new war against Iran, lawmakers are asking for answers about how a strike on an elementary facility in Minab could lead to such a large civilian toll.
Since the February 28 attack on the school, calls for transparency surrounding the operation have largely quieted, as the national spotlight shifts from this incident to each new round of hostilities and the ongoing tension over the Strait of Hormuz.
Toward the end of March, a bipartisan push from lawmakers urged an official inquiry into the event, but the government has released scant information about what occurred. On Monday, a group of 25 Democratic senators signed onto a letter addressed to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Admiral Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command, pressing for openness about the investigation. The letter requests that the Defense Department complete its probe, share an unclassified version of the findings with Congress, and present a corrective-action plan by July 20.
“When a U.S. 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,” the letter asserts. The Senate Armed Services Committee has also threatened to withhold travel funds from Hegseth if the Pentagon does not disclose additional details regarding the school bombing.
As noted by Reason, the Pentagon and President Donald Trump have offered few, and at times conflicting, explanations of the strike. In March, Trump asserted that the attack could have been conducted by Iran or “somebody else.”
On March 9, Shawn McCreesh, a reporter for The New York Times, pressed Trump about why he appeared to be the only one publicly suggesting that Iran had obtained a Tomahawk and used it to strike its own school.
“Even your defense secretary wouldn’t say that,” McCreesh observed. “Why are you the only person saying this?”
The president replied that he did not know enough about the matter to draw a conclusion, adding that “Tomahawks are used by others, as you know,” and that “Numerous other nations have Tomahawks. They buy them from us.”
Thus far, the more substantial updates on the inquiry have emerged from the press. On March 11, The New York Times reported that U.S. officials familiar with the preliminary inquiry had concluded the United States bore responsibility for the Tomahawk strike.
On March 18, Semafor reported that human error, rather than artificial intelligence, likely played a role, noting that U.S. officials had failed to recognize subtle changes in satellite imagery. More recent coverage from CNN indicated that satellite images from 2013 showed the school and an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base within the same compound, but newer imagery suggested a fence now separates the school from the base, with dozens of children observed playing in the school courtyard as late as December 2025. The outlet also claimed that senior U.S. military leaders had ignored warnings about outdated intelligence in the interest of expediency.
When queried about the lawmakers’ missive, a Pentagon spokesperson told Reuters that the investigation is “ongoing” and that there are “no updates to announce at this time.”
Although Trump once described bombing Iran as a “little excursion,” the conflict has stretched to 137 days and shows no sign of ending soon. As this war endures, it may be tempting for the Pentagon to keep information about the strike under wraps and hope the incident fades from public memory. Yet lawmakers and the public deserve full disclosure about the Pentagon’s involvement in the attack—not only for moral accountability but also to deter a repetition of such an atrocity, particularly as attacks on Iran risk becoming a routine element of U.S. foreign policy.
