Deadly explosion at girls’ school caused by misfired Iranian missile, says Israel

Adviser to Netanyahu says blast at a girls’ school in southern Iran was caused by a misfired Iranian missile, not by US or Israeli airstrikes.

By World Israel News Staff

An explosion at an elementary school in southern Iran over the weekend, which Tehran has claimed killed as many as 180 people was the result of a misfired Iranian ballistic missile, a senior Israeli official said.

On Wednesday, Ophir Falk, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told CNN that Israel’s assessment is that the school was not hit by either Israeli or American warplanes, but was instead destroyed by a missile launched by Iran.

“From what I understand, it’s clearly an Iranian strike. It’s a misfire from the Iranians. That’s what I understand,” Falk said.

According to Iran, at approximately 10:45 a.m. on Saturday, a missile struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh Girls’ School in the city of Minab in the southern Hormozgan province.

On Monday, Iran said that the death toll in the strike had risen to 180, most of them schoolchildren.

The location of the school near two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities fueled speculation that the school may have been struck accidentally by an American or Israeli warplane targeting one of the IRGC centers.

While the US military’s Central Command acknowledged the reports on Sunday, adding that the claims were being examined, on Wednesday White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the administration was not aware of any such strike and suggested Iran’s claims may be “propaganda.”

“Not that we know of,” Leavitt said. “The Department of War is investigating this matter, and I would just tell you strongly that the United States of America does not target civilians, unlike the rogue Iranian regime that targets civilians, that kills children, that has killed thousands of their own people in the past several weeks and uses propaganda quite effectively.”