For the principal of a school in the southern Iranian city of Minab, the morning began not with the sound of explosions overhead but with a decision to protect her students. Shortly after 10:30 a.m. on 28 February 2026, reports reached the campus that Tehran had come under attack. Fearing the conflict could spread, she instructed teachers to telephone every parent and arrange for children to be collected immediately. Classrooms began emptying as staff worked their way through contact lists, unaware that time was running out.
At 11:14 a.m., Iran’s state news agency ISNA officially announced the nationwide closure of schools, with lessons moving partly online. Before the evacuation could be completed, explosions ripped through the school. One surviving teacher later recalled hearing a deafening blast before windows shattered around her. Flames swept through the building as terrified children struggled to escape. She gathered several girls into her arms before smoke engulfed the classrooms. Moments later, she said, the voices around her disappeared.
The attack unfolded while parents were rushing towards the school after receiving calls from teachers. Morteza Bahadori, whose son attended the third grade, was speaking to his wife when she informed him that the school wanted their child picked up. During the conversation he saw a column of smoke rising into the sky. Abdollah Karyanipak had already reached the entrance to collect his two sons when the blast struck. The explosion threw him through the air. When he regained his footing and looked back, the entrance where he had been standing moments earlier had collapsed.
The destruction quickly overwhelmed rescue efforts. Video footage showed thick smoke rising above the damaged school while crowds converged on the site. Access roads became blocked as desperate relatives, neighbours and emergency responders struggled to reach the building. Ambulances were forced to wait as traffic ground to a halt. Rescue workers later described scenes of confusion, with families searching frantically for missing children while survivors emerged covered in dust, shattered glass and blood.
Karyanipak climbed across the rubble in an attempt to rescue children trapped on the upper floor. He later described hearing injured girls crying for help but being unable to reach them. Hours later he was summoned to identify the bodies of his sons at the morgue, recognising his younger child only by his shoes.
According to accounts gathered by Der Spiegel, some children were led into a prayer room on the lower floor after surviving the initial explosion. Before rescuers could reach them, another strike hit the building. A Red Crescent worker later said that only a small number of those who had sought shelter there survived the second blast. Another father recounted that his daughter escaped the first explosion but was killed when the prayer room was struck.
Teacher Neda Solhizadeh was credited by multiple witnesses with rescuing her own children before returning to the building to help others. Her younger son, Hami, followed her back inside. Both were killed during the subsequent strike, while her daughter survived.
The exact number of impacts remains disputed. Iran’s Ministry of Education said the school was struck three times, while other Iranian reports referred to two attacks. Satellite imagery, photographs and videos nevertheless reveal extensive destruction across the site, with large sections of the building reduced to rubble and smoke pouring from the remaining structure.
The attack has become the subject of growing international scrutiny because of the weapon believed to have been used. Analyses by Amnesty International and the investigative platform Bellingcat indicate that Tomahawk cruise missiles struck the school, a conclusion supported by British military expert Chris Lincoln-Jones after reviewing satellite imagery and footage for Der Spiegel. Because the United States is the only participant in the conflict known to possess the weapon, few specialists doubt which military carried out the strike. The central question, however, is no longer who launched the missiles, but why a functioning school became the target.
The answer appears to lie in the school’s location. The campus stands beside a naval base operated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. While the site has functioned as a school for years, Der Spiegel found that it remained administratively linked to a network of educational institutions run by the IRGC Navy. US military officials have maintained that the adjacent base was still active at the time of the attack, while reporting also indicates that the nearby 16th Asef Missile Brigade continued operating there during the conflict. Those overlapping civilian and military connections have become central to attempts to understand how the strike occurred—and whether the intended target was the school itself or nearby military facilities.
The investigation into the Minab strike has expanded beyond the immediate devastation to examine whether the attack complied with international humanitarian law and whether the intelligence used to authorise it was accurate. Iran has accused the United States of striking the school deliberately, while US President Donald Trump initially suggested Iranian responsibility before later announcing an investigation. More recently, Trump said no one had carried out the attack intentionally and that inquiries remained underway. The reason the school was hit has not been definitively established.
Military analysts interviewed by Der Spiegel believe the evidence points to a precision strike rather than an accidental impact. Chris Lincoln-Jones, a former British artillery officer who examined satellite imagery and video footage, concluded that the damage was consistent with Tomahawk cruise missiles. He argued that such weapons are employed only after an extensive targeting process that examines the military value of the objective, the potential risk to civilians, the timing of an attack and the expected collateral damage. According to Lincoln-Jones, schools display distinct daily activity patterns that should normally be identified during intelligence assessments. He believes the repeated strikes indicate that those carrying out the operation believed they were attacking a legitimate military objective, adding that the decision may have been based on incorrect or outdated intelligence.
Legal experts distinguish between an unlawful strike and a war crime. Janina Dill, professor of global security at the University of Oxford, told Der Spiegel that an attack on a civilian object becomes a war crime only if it is carried out with knowledge that the target is civilian. Establishing that intent is often difficult. At the same time, the absence of proof of criminal intent does not automatically make an attack lawful. In pre-planned operations, she noted, commanders have greater opportunity to verify intelligence and assess whether a target has changed from military to civilian use before authorising force.
As investigations continue, the destruction in Minab has become a focal point inside Iran. State media and official institutions have widely circulated footage from the site, including interviews with surviving children who were asked about classmates and relatives killed in the attack. The damaged school is to be preserved as a national museum, while the events are expected to become part of future school curricula. Independent reporting inside Iran remains limited, leaving much of the available information filtered through official channels.
International attention has increasingly focused on accountability. Human rights organisations have called for a full investigation, while a United Nations commission has begun examining the circumstances surrounding the strike. Dill said the United States has an obligation to review its own decision-making processes regardless of whether the wider conflict has concluded. Because the United States recognises the core principles of the laws of armed conflict and incorporates them into domestic legislation through the War Crimes Act of 1996, any confirmed violations could carry legal consequences beyond international scrutiny.
Long after the explosions ended, rescue teams continued searching through the collapsed buildings in the hope of finding survivors. Emergency workers described hearing reports that children’s voices could still be coming from beneath the rubble of the prayer room, but those hopes faded as recovery efforts continued. One rescuer recalled that none of the children pulled from that section of the building were found alive. Aid workers described scenes of widespread destruction, with bodies thrown clear of the blast and, in many cases, victims identifiable only through personal belongings.
As official agencies compiled lists of the dead, Iranian media published names, funeral processions and images of children’s coffins draped in the national flag. Der Spiegel compared multiple official lists and found broad consistency in the identities of those reported killed. Among them was nine-year-old Arya Bahadori, whose father had abandoned his vehicle and run towards the school after receiving the evacuation call. His body was identified later that evening. Principal Fatemeh Taheri-Fard was buried separately in her hometown, while many victims were laid to rest together during a mass burial in Minab on 3 March, where aerial images showed rows of freshly dug graves.
Even as the investigation into Minab continues, attention has shifted to another potential flashpoint in the conflict. Deep beneath a mountain in central Iran known as Pickaxe Mountain, intelligence assessments suggest Tehran may have transferred part of its nuclear infrastructure after earlier strikes on facilities at Fordo and Natanz. According to reporting cited by Der Spiegel, Israeli intelligence believes centrifuges used for uranium enrichment may now be housed within the heavily fortified complex. Assessments by the Institute for Science and International Security indicate parts of the underground facility may lie deeper than the Fordo site, potentially placing them beyond the reach of existing American bunker-busting weapons. Although the installation is believed to be incomplete and many details remain unknown, it has emerged as a new focus in continuing assessments of Iran’s nuclear programme.
From the shattered classrooms of Minab to renewed attention on Iran’s underground nuclear facilities, the events examined by Der Spiegel illustrate how military operations, intelligence assessments and legal scrutiny have become increasingly intertwined. While investigations into the school strike remain incomplete and key questions surrounding responsibility and intent have yet to be resolved, both the human cost of the attack and the strategic concerns surrounding Iran’s nuclear programme continue to shape an unfolding international debate.
