AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Several former U.S. officials, criticizing the Pentagon's silence regarding the crime of the attack on the Minab school, emphasized that the failure to provide an official explanation regarding the possibility of U.S. involvement in this attack is unusual and contrary to Washington's previous practices in similar cases. This comes as the U.S. Secretary of War admitted before a congressional hearing that the crime was committed by the United States.
Five former U.S. officials, including a former senior legal advisor to the U.S. military, criticized the Pentagon for refusing to acknowledge the possibility of U.S. involvement in the deadly attack on the Shajareh Tayabeh school in Minab.
Some of these officials have said it is highly unusual that, after such a long time, not even basic information about this attack has been released.
During the missile attack on the Shajareh Tayabeh school in Minab on the first day of the U.S. and Zionist regime's attack on Iran, 168 schoolchildren and teachers were martyred. Over the past two months, the Pentagon has only stated that the incident is "still under review."
A Pentagon official, responding to BBC questions about the attack and the lack of transparency, announced, "This incident is currently under review," adding that further details will be released "at the appropriate time."
Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Secretary of War, during a meeting with members of Congress on Wednesday, without condemning his country's brutal attack on the Shajareh Tayabeh school in Minab at the beginning of the aggression against Iranian territory, brazenly stated that the incident regarding the bombing of this school was "regrettable" and that investigations into it are still ongoing.
The BBC reported that it reviewed three historical cases in which civilians were killed in U.S. military operations, and in all three, the Pentagon had released far more information within less than a month.
Rachel E. VanLandingham, a retired colonel and former senior legal advisor at U.S. Central Command during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, said the current U.S. position is "strikingly different from standard past responses."
She added, "Previous administrations at least showed a commitment to the laws of war," and stated that what is absent in the current U.S. administration's positions is a commitment to accountability and ensuring that such an incident does not happen again.
Donald Trump, the U.S. president, claimed on March 7 without providing evidence that Iran was responsible for the attack on the Minab school—an absurd claim that even the White House spokesperson could not defend during a press briefing.
A few days later, when asked about a video showing a U.S. Tomahawk missile striking a military base adjacent to the school, he said, "I haven't seen it," and without evidence, claimed that Iran also possesses Tomahawk missiles.
Wes Bryant, a former senior Pentagon advisor on precision warfare and civilian casualty mitigation, told the BBC that initial military investigations are usually conducted to determine two things: first, whether civilians were actually harmed, and second, whether the United States conducted operations in that area and might have been responsible.
He added, "From an administrative process standpoint, this increasingly suggests they already know the U.S. was responsible for this; otherwise, they wouldn't be conducting such an investigation. They just don't want to admit it or talk about it."
Another former U.S. Department of Defense official also told the BBC that some investigations into civilian casualties may take time depending on the complexity of the case, but in this instance, "the ambiguity is unusually high, while the matter is not all that complicated."
He added, "Usually, the Pentagon admits responsibility quickly or relatively quickly and then takes more time to provide full details; that's why this situation is problematic for me."
Meanwhile, Democratic members of the U.S. Congress have repeatedly written letters to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth demanding answers about the Minab attack, with their first question being whether the United States carried out the attack.
The BBC reported that it had seen two response letters sent by Hegseth from the Pentagon, but none of the questions were answered in them. One of these letters, sent to Democrats on April 2, stated that an investigative officer outside CENTCOM's chain of command had been assigned to investigate, and that results would be released upon completion.
The BBC also reported that it contacted 15 Republican members of Congress regarding the handling of this case, but all declined to comment.
Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana also condemned the attack on March 10 in an interview with the New York Times, but claimed the attack was a terrible "mistake."
Pentagon officials have held several classified briefings for members of Congress since the start of the war against Iran, and the Minab attack has been raised in these sessions as well.
Adam Smith, the senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told the BBC that Pentagon officials responded that they could not comment due to ongoing investigations—a response he described as "terrible and completely inadequate."
The BBC then cited three historical examples where civilians were killed in U.S. operations, but the U.S. government acted with greater transparency.
During a drone strike near Kabul airport in August 2021, the Pentagon initially claimed to have targeted a vehicle belonging to an imminent ISIS threat, but it later emerged that a family of 10, including seven children, had been killed. Less than three weeks later, the Pentagon accepted responsibility and apologized.
In the attack on the Kunduz hospital in Afghanistan in October 2015, in which at least 42 people, including patients and staff of a medical facility, were killed, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan testified before Congress five days later that the attack was "a U.S. decision within the U.S. chain of command," and the White House apologized the same day.
In the attack on the Al-Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad in 1991, in which 408 civilians were killed, the U.S. government acknowledged from the outset that the attack had been carried out by the United States and that there were civilian casualties.
Charles O. Blaha, former director of the Office of Security and Human Rights at the U.S. State Department, also said the lack of transparency in Washington stems from the administration's "reluctance" to oppose the president, as Trump had blamed Iran for the attack—a claim he described as "very far from reality and entirely false."
Blaha also attributed the relative silence of the U.S. government on the Minab crime case to an approach that considers any negative news about the war as "unpatriotic."
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