US Airstrikes Killed 123 Children in Iranian School — SkimNews
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- Azmat Khan documented that misidentification caused roughly one-third of U.S. civilian casualties in Iran, far exceeding the military's internal figure of 4%, and that a girls' elementary school in Minab was struck on the war's first day, killing 123 children
- A Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) — never before used in combat — sprayed 1,800 tungsten pellets into a Lamerd neighborhood, killing 21 civilians including five children; when the Times identified the weapon, the military initially tried to blame Iran
- The Human Rights Activists News Agency documented 1,701 civilian fatalities by April from strikes that hit hospitals, primary schools, desalination plants, power plants, civilian airports, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and residential areas
- An independent international fact-finding mission found "reasonable grounds to believe the United States committed a war crime" through indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian objects
- Secretary of Defense Hegseth eliminated the Pentagon's Civilian Harm Mitigation office, and the U.S. had already stopped releasing public strike-tracking data during the 2025 Yemen bombing campaign
- The U.S. military conducted "double-tap" strikes that hit rescuers arriving at initial blast sites and "dual-use" targeting of civilian infrastructure, with Khan noting Trump's openly stated intent was to "destroy Iran"
- Lockheed Martin received a $1.2 billion Army contract for additional Precision Strike Missiles despite Khan's sources describing the untested weapon as having a high failure rate
Why it matters: An independent body has found grounds to label U.S. strikes as war crimes, yet the Pentagon simultaneously disbanded its civilian harm oversight office and awarded a $1.2 billion contract for the very untested weapon that killed 21 civilians in Lamerd — leaving fewer institutional checks as the campaign expands.
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