A preliminary US military investigation has pointed to American responsibility for a strike on a school in Iran that killed over 100 children. Reuters first broke the story. Time Magazine, the New York Times, The Guardian, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have all published corroborating reports.
The school was a girls’ institution in a residential area. The strike occurred during school hours. Over 100 children are confirmed dead, with the number expected to rise as rescue operations continue.
Amnesty International has demanded accountability. Human Rights Watch has called for a formal war crimes investigation. The White House has not acknowledged the reports.
In his prime-time address the same day the preliminary findings were reported, President Trump made no mention of civilian casualties. The word children did not appear in his remarks. The word school did not appear in his remarks.
The legal framework is not ambiguous. The Geneva Conventions require distinction between military and civilian objects. A school full of children is a civilian object. Striking it requires explanation, accountability, and — if the strike was unjustified — prosecution.
Whether that framework will be applied is a different question. It depends on political will, and political will depends on who is doing the killing and who is being killed. One hundred children in a European school would produce an international tribunal. Whether one hundred children in an Iranian school will produce even a formal investigation remains to be seen.
The names of the children have begun to circulate on Iranian social media. They were students. They had backpacks and homework and parents who sent them to school that morning expecting them to come home.
