US prides itself on ‘precision strikes’ in Iran - so did it drop a missile on a school?

In the News podcast: How investigation team at New York Times found US Tomahawk killed 175 in school blast

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Graves being dug for the children and their teachers killed during an airstrike on a school in Iran on February 28th. But who was responsible? Photograph: Iranian Press Center/AFP via Getty
Graves being dug for the children and their teachers killed during an airstrike on a school in Iran on February 28th. But who was responsible? Photograph: Iranian Press Center/AFP via Getty

In the first wave of attacks on Iran, a primary school was hit, with a reported death toll of 175, most of them young girls.

It is the deadliest known episode of civilian casualties since the US and Israel launched its war in the region on February 28th.

In the immediate aftermath, no side took responsibility and who is to blame has become a question that the Trump administration is being called upon to answer.

And its answers are confusing and evasive, including the president’s claim that the school was hit by Iran.

While both Israel and the US say they are investigating, and with outside reporters unable to reach the scene, Malachy Browne and the Visual Investigations Team at the New York Times began to painstakingly piece together what happened.

So how did the team do it and what does this mean for the US strategy of “precision strikes”? Browne explains.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan and Declan Conlon.

Bernice Harrison

Bernice Harrison

Bernice Harrison is an Irish Times journalist and cohost of In the News podcast

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