Residents and officials attend the funeral of people killed in what Iranian officials said was an Israeli-U.S. strike Feb. 28 on a girls’ elementary school in Minab, Iran, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. No country or group has claimed responsibility for the strike. The U.S. military on Saturday told the Associated Press and Washington Post it was investigating. (Abbas Zakeri/Mehr News Agency via AP)
Thousands gathered in the streets of the southern Iranian city of Minab to mourn the victims of an airstrike on an elementary school that killed scores of children and staff members, Iran’s mission to the United Nations said.
At least 175 people, many of them children, were killed in the attack Saturday on the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school for girls in Minab, Iranian authorities said.
On Tuesday, mourners wept, held hands over hearts, prayed, threw hands up in anguish, raised fists. Some clutched printed-out photos of young children; some threw petals.
Drone video shared by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency and verified by The Washington Post shows a succession of people carrying caskets, some adorned with photos of young children.
Saturday is the first day of the Iranian school week. Video recorded in the strike’s aftermath and confirmed by The Post shows one side of the building in apparent collapse, with shattered glass and crumbled walls. Video released by Iranian media showed colorful children’s backpacks stained with blood.
“They were girls who went to school to learn, with hopes and dreams for their future. Today, their lives were brutally cut short,” Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai, an advocate for girls’ education, wrote Saturday on X. “Every child deserves to live and learn in peace.”
“The killing of pupils in a place dedicated to learning constitutes a grave violation of the protection afforded to schools under international humanitarian law,” UNESCO, the U.N. agency for education, said in a statement.
Photos released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry and distributed by the Associated Press show people using backhoes and other equipment to dig graves.
No nation or force has asserted responsibility for the attack. The school lay near and was once part of a naval base operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to satellite imagery and open-source material. The IRGC is the predominant branch of the Iranian armed forces.
The U.S. military told The Post on the day of the initial strikes that it was “looking into” reports of the attack on the school, and it did not immediately provide a comment Wednesday.
U.S. and Israeli strikes have killed 787 people across Iran, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said Tuesday. The Post could not independently verify the toll.
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