Pressure is growing for the release of a probe of a US attack on an Iranian school that killed more than 120 children and more than 40 adults at the beginning of the US-Israel war on Iran , as the US launches another round of strikes on Iran this week killing at least 30 civilians.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York is leading calls for the release of a Pentagon investigation of the airstrikes by next week. She is joined by more than two dozen Democratic senators, an unusually high number for such an issue.
"Senators are now waging a pretty significant campaign to release the report. We’re seeing some effective agency by Democrats for a change," David Frank, a professor of rhetoric and political communication at the University of Oregon, told The New Arab .
"There is no justification for withholding an unclassified accounting of what happened, what went wrong, and what the Department is doing to prevent recurrence," the senators state in a letter to the Defence Department dated 13 July. They are demanding that the government take preventive measures to ensure a similar tragedy does not happen in the future.
On 28 February, on the first day of the US-Israeli war on Iran , US bombs hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in the city of Minab in southern Iran. To date, it was the deadliest attack on civilians in the US-Israeli war . Multiple investigations have found that the US perpetrated the attack, and sources in the US military have also pointed to the US as the responsible party.
The building had previously been part of a military facility until around 2016. In 2017, there was no indication that it was continuing to be used as a military facility, with satellite images showing a children’s play area starting around that time.
This week, Iran accused the US of hitting a wheat silo and a mineral water production facility, both civilian infrastructures.
"When the system is so sloppy, and when they say they're going to take the restraints off, they’re almost guaranteed to hit civilians," said Frank, referring to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's public remarks about having done away with the "stupid rules of engagement" of the US military.
Eyewitnesses reported that an initial strike led teachers and students to take shelter in another part of the school. That section was then hit by another attack, known as a "double tap", an action that often leads to high civilian casualties due to people gathering in the area of the first strike to render aid.
The targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure is considered a war crime.
"The United States military has a legal and moral obligation to take all feasible precautions to prevent civilian harm," write the senators in their joint letter. "When a US strike kills civilians, the Department owes Congress, the American people, and the victims' families a clear accounting of what happened and a credible plan to prevent future failures."