Screenshots of a cruise missile hitting a girls’ school compound in Iran, killing around 175 people.
Screenshots by Jeff Brumfiel for NPR/ Mehr News at X
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Screenshots by Jeff Brumfiel for NPR/ Mehr News at X
A new video released by Iranian state media shows a US cruise missile striking the compound at a girls’ school a week ago, killing about 175 Iranian students and staff.
The seven-second video was posted by Iran’s state news agency Mehr News. It shows a missile hitting a building inside the walled enclosure – possibly a health clinic that was at one point within the perimeter of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval base.
The strike appears to have taken place shortly after the attack on the girl’s school. In the new video, smoke can already be seen rising from the part of the compound where the school is located. State media reports put the death toll from the bombing at somewhere between 165 and 180, most of them students.
Although the quality of the video made it difficult to accurately identify the munitions, according to Jeffrey Lewis, a professor of global security at Middlebury College, the missile looked consistent with a Tomahawk cruise missile. The US is the only country with Tomahawk missiles, and US officials say the military was operating in the south of the country at the time of the strike.
“The first shooters at sea were Tomahawks taken from the United States Navy,” Gen. Dan Kane, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a press conference Monday after the strike.
Speaking on Air Force One on Saturday, President Trump blamed Iran for the school bombing.
“Based on what I’ve seen, I think Iran did it,” Trump said. “Because they are, you know, inaccurate with their munitions. They don’t have any accuracy. Iran did it.”
However, Lewis said the missile in the video does not appear to be consistent with known, Iranian-made cruise missile designs.
NPR was able to check out the location where the video was shot at a housing development under construction across the street from the compound. Several details, including the plaque at the clinic’s entrance, match what is known about the compound where the school is located. The video was first geolocated by the online research group BellingCat.
The short video appeared to be authentic. While AI-generated videos have been posted online during the recent conflict with Iran, they often lack specific location details, such as important landmarks unless they are already known. Many contain errors in physics or other inaccuracies when showing a missile or rocket attack.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to NPR’s request for comment on the video.
NPR first reported satellite imagery from the Planet Company showed multiple buildings, including a clinic, in what appeared to be a precision strike that led to the deaths at the school. In total, seven buildings were hit in the strike on the complex, which at one point was an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval base.
The base in the southeastern city of Minab appeared to be a relatively small facility. NPR was able to find a video shot at the base during a 2010 military exercise that showed members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard flying an Ababil-3 drone directly from the airport into the compound.
But historical satellite imagery shows little activity at the airfield in the years following that demonstration. NBC News reported that local officials said the base had been abandoned for more than a decade, but NPR was unable to independently verify those claims.
Between 2013 and 2016, the school was separated from the campus by a wall, according to satellite images. Satellite imagery shows the airstrip removed in 2024. Online posts from a local construction firm and reviewed by NPR show that the land behind the runway is being converted into a residential development. The clinic was walled off between 2023 and 2024 and reopened in 2025, according to a local press report by Fars News Agency-Hormozgan, reviewed by NPR.
The opening indicated that the site still had ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. According to reports, the clinic was opened by IRGC chief Hossein Salami, who was killed in an Israeli attack later that year. A photo appeared of Salami cutting the ribbon at the clinic.
Louis said it was possible the school and clinic were hit as a result of outdated targeting information.
Speaking next to Trump on Saturday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US was looking into what happened at the school. “We are certainly investigating,” he said. “But the only part that targets civilians is Iran.”
NPR’s RAD team contributed to this report.
Contact Geoff Brumfiel at Signal at gbrumfiel.13
