By Humeyra Pamuk and Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday it may never be known who was at fault for a deadly strike on a girls’ school in Iran on February 28, the first day of the Iran war, that killed scores of children.
Reuters first reported in March that an initial internal U.S. military investigation showed U.S. forces were likely responsible for the fatal strike in Minab in southern Iran. The Pentagon has since elevated the probe but it has not acknowledged any preliminary findings.
“I don’t know that they are ever going to solve that problem,” Trump told reporters.
“I don’t know that they are ever going to solve that problem in terms of whose fault was it because there were missiles flying all over the place, and it’s horrible what happened but there were missiles flying all over the place,” he said.
“Somebody said it was our missile, maybe it wasn’t our missile but I have seen nothing to lead me to believe it was,” Trump remarked, adding: “I don’t think it was us.”
The strike on February 28, when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, killed more than 175 children and teachers, according to Iranian officials.
The strike may be the result of U.S. use of outdated targeting data, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters in March.
Deliberately attacking a school would likely be a war crime under international humanitarian law. U.S. officials have publicly said Washington would not deliberately target a school.
The strike caused global outrage. The U.N. human rights office called it “absolutely horrific.”
Trump initially claimed, without evidence, Iran was responsible. He has since said he does not know enough about the strike, that an investigation is ongoing, that he will accept the results of the inquiry and that “nobody” purposefully attacked the school.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
