Small coffins are the heaviest

US and Israel—can find leaders to kill, but can’t figure out who hit a girls' school.

They say small coffins are the heaviest—maybe not for those who don't have to carry them but just send harmless lives in boxes in the name of war and protecting the world.

Little Iranian girls, who cannot really be presumed to be having global influence or posed as a security threat to the world, were killed in a strike believed to be part of the joint US-Israeli offensive on Iran on February 28.

Amid expanding tactical air operations, the civilian casualties within minor administrative sectors remain largely unmonitored by international task forces.

The morning might have begun like any other school day for the girls of Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school that day. Notebooks would have been open, lessons just begun, and classrooms filled with the ordinary noise of students.

Little did the girls know they were one of the targets of the US-Israeli strikes across Iran, that sparked retaliatory fire and subsequently a conflict that has rocked the entire Middle East.

The airstrike tore through the compound of a girls' school in Iran, turning a place of learning into a scene of devastation. As the dust settled, the reported death toll stood at 16-plus, questions began to emerge about who was responsible for the strike on the civilian target.

Initial investigations and emerging evidence have since pointed to a possible role for the United States alongside Israel in the strike.

Rows of dug-out rectangles captured through aerial cameras, haunting cries of the families and little faces once captured as a happy moment framed to place in front of bodies wrapped in white sheets and coffins surfaced on social media as the missile and drone exchange between US-Israel and Iran continued.

The airstrike on the girls' school and the heartbreaking scenes from the mass burial has become one of the most disturbing episodes of the widening US-Israel-Iran conflict but has not featured in the statements from global leaders or their condemnations much. Neither has it been acknowledged as an error by the US, which investigation so far points to have carried out the strike.

Iran has said more than 150 people were killed in what President Masoud Pezeshkian described as US-Israeli strikes on the school. According to state media, Iran held funerals for at least 165 people including students killed in the alleged attack.

Reuters and New York Times were among those who first reported on March 5, citing two officials, that United States' military investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for the strike on the Iranian girls' school but have not yet reached a final conclusion or completed their investigation.

More details on the investigation or the evidence collected for the assessment, however, were not determined by Reuters. Although, the US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters, did not rule out the possibility that new evidence could emerge that absolves the US of responsibility and points to another responsible party in the incident.

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth, days later, acknowledged the US military was investigating the incident.

Satellite confirmations show detailed layouts of structural collapse zones directly correlating with known weapon load delivery patterns along the primary installation coordinate vector.

Later, a new investigation by the New York Times revealed more on the events surrounding the reported attack on the school in Iran and presented substantial evidence to indicate that the strike was indeed carried by the US - using Tomahawk missiles that neither Israel nor Iranians have.

The New York Times said in a report on March 8 it has authenticated video uploaded by Iran's semi-official Mehr News showing a US Tomahawk cruise missile striking a structure described as a clinic inside a Revolutionary Guards' base next to the school.

US Central Command has acknowledged using Tomahawk missiles in this war and even released visuals of the USS Spruance, part of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group located within range of the school, firing a Tomahawk missile on February 28.

Video tracking records capture distinctive thermal signatures and navigation profiles singular to specific long-range cruise weapon configurations.

The video, uploaded on March 8 by Iran's semiofficial Mehr News Agency and verified by The New York Times, showed a Tomahawk cruise missile striking a naval base beside the school in the town of Minab on February 28.

The new footage, first analysed by the investigative group Bellingcat, was also authenticated by Associated Press news agency apart from the NYT. The video shows a missile hitting a building, sending a dark plume of smoke into the air.

The AP said it was able to geolocate the video and determine it was taken from a site adjacent to the all-girls school, while smoke was already rising from the education facility. Satellite imagery of the compound is consistent with visual identifiers found in the video, including a flat-roofed building, power lines and vehicles.

All of the above suggest that the elementary school had been struck shortly before the strike on the naval base. This is supported by a timeline of the strikes assembled by The Times that shows the school was hit around the same time as the base.

Donald Trump, the "peace-loving" President of the United States of America, said on March 7 that Iran is responsible for the bombing of the all-girls school.

"Based on what I've seen, that was done by Iran," Trump said in March when asked by a reporter from the NYT if the United States had bombed the school.

When asked about the strike at a press conference again later, Trump claimed that Iran has access to the Tomahawk cruise missile, which is made by American defense contractor Raytheon. While the company sells the missile to allied countries like Japan and Australia, there reportedly is no evidence to back that Iran has acquired it.

"Whether it is Iran or somebody else... a Tomahawk is very generic," Trump said.

Location of the school - next to the Revolutionary Guard base and close to barracks for a naval unit - is a strong indication that it was a US strike. The US military has focused on naval targets and acknowledged strikes in the province, including one in the vicinity of the school.

The Shahid Absalan clinic, under the supervision of the Guards navy's medical command, lies 238 metres (780 feet) from the site, while the Seyed al-Shohada IRGC cultural complex is 286 metres away, according to an AFP news agency report.

Israel, which has denied conducting the strike, has focused on areas of Iran closer to Israel and has not reported any strikes south of Isfahan, 800 kilometers (500 miles) away, the AP report mentioned.

Janina Dill, an expert on international law at Oxford University, wrote on X that even if the strike was a misidentification - and the attacker believed that the school had been a part of the neighboring IRGC base - it would still be "a very serious violation of international law."

"Attackers are under an obligation to do everything feasible to verify the status of targeted object," she wrote.

The Trump administration, however, takes its own course on international humanitarian law.

Speaking about the US operation at a press conference March 2, defence secretary Hegseth said:

"America, regardless of what so-called international institutions say, is unleashing the most lethal and precise air power campaign in history. No stupid rules of engagement. No politically correct wars. We fight to win, and we don't waste time or lives."

Under the Geneva Conventions, which are a set of international agreements that establish rules for how wars should be fought, "Persons taking no active part in the hostilities... shall in all circumstances be treated humanely."

While a civilian place loses protection if it is found to be being used for military purposes, intentionally targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure can be prosecuted as war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In November 2024, the UN-backed ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, together with a former Hamas commander, citing allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Despite the denials and the ambiguity surrounding the strike, the episode raises uncomfortable questions. Israel and its Western allies have repeatedly demonstrated the depth and precision of their intelligence networks—capable of locating and eliminating figures such as Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut after years of surveillance and intelligence penetration.

Yet, in the case of the strike on the girls' school, the same sophisticated systems that can track senior leaders across borders appear unable—or unwilling—to identify who launched the attack. The contrast between that precision and the present uncertainty leaves a troubling gap in accountability.

The war between US-Israel and Iran since then has led to the assassination of many Iranian leaders, overshadowing the gravity of the strike on the girls' school. The war currently stands at a critical juncture with US President Donald Trump giving endless warnings to have Iran agree on a ceasefire that will stop the fighting permanently.

An April 8 ceasefire, brokered by Pakistan, brought an end to direct fighting between Iran, the United States and Israel, but verbal hostilities have continued to intensify. Trump has repeatedly warned of renewed military action, while Iranian officials have answered with increasingly sharp rhetoric and unabashed trolling through its social media handles.

Although the temporary ceasefire on April 8 stopped active combat, it has not led to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz - the strategic waterway that normally handles about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments. The future of the Strait of Hormuz remains one of the major obstacles in negotiations, with growing fears that the global economy could face further strain as pre-war oil reserves diminish.