Featured Image Credit: Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Politics, Iran, Israel, World News, News
Rhianna Benson
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Politics, Iran, Israel, World News, News
Donald Trump has denied responsibility for dropping a missile on a girls' elementary school in Iran.
By his own admission, the US President launched a 'massive' missile attack on the country's capital last Saturday (28 February), joined by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
The pair claimed the decision had been made in a bid to eliminate the Islamic Republic's totalitarian leadership and the oppression of Iranian citizens, as well as to ensure the nation 'does not obtain a nuclear weapon'.
On the first day of the strikes, Shajareh Tayyebeh - an all-girls elementary school in Iran's Minab city - was obliterated by drones. According to the BBC, a devastating total of 175 people inside were killed. Of these, 151 victims were children aged between 7 and 12.
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Responding to the US-Israeli attack - which killed Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - new leaders fired missiles of their own at troops across Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Cyprus.
According to Politico, they also formally blamed America and Israel for the attack.
Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, claimed the assault would 'never be erased from the historical memory of our nation'. The nation's Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, also slammed the school bombing as a 'crime'.
Diplomats from Iran have also implored the United Nations to carry out an investigation and to condemn the guilty parties.
The New York Times subsequently assembled independently-verified satellite images and social media content, however, that suggest that the educational facility had been hit simultaneously while US missiles were landing upon nearby buildings. Amongst them was a naval base operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which the Pentagon later confirmed had been adjacent to the school.
Despite this, during a brief press conference on the matter, Trump attempted to skirt the blame for the attack.
Asked by a reporter whilst exiting Air Force One on Sunday (8 Mar) whether the 'United States bombed a girls' elementary school', the politician hit back: "No, in my opinion and based on what I've seen, that was done by Iran."
The same reporter then asked Pete Hegseth - who was standing behind Trump at the time - whether the President's assertion was 'true'.
"We're certainly investigating," the US Secretary of Defence replied. "But the only side that targets civilians is Iran."
Chiming in again, Trump added: "We think it was done by Iran because they're very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions.
"They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran."
Shortly after, the US's United Nations ambassador, Michael Waltz, refused to stand by Trump and Hegseth's claim that Iran had been behind the attack on the school, telling ABC: "I’ll leave that to the investigators to determine."
Waltz continued: "As Secretary Hegseth said, it's under investigation. I can tell you, as a veteran, in no uncertain terms, the United States does everything it can to avoid civilian casualties."
He went on to add, however: "Sometimes, of course, tragic mistakes occur."