A newly surfaced video released by Iranian state media appears to show a US cruise missile striking a compound in southern Iran where a deadly February 28 attack killed more than 165 people, many of them schoolchildren, raising fresh questions about the origin of the strike.
The 18-second clip, posted by Iran’s Mehr News Agency, shows a missile slamming into a building inside a walled complex in Minab, a city in Iran’s Hormozgan province. Smoke can already be seen rising from another part of the compound where the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school had been hit moments earlier.
The school strike, which took place during the opening hours of a broader US–Israeli campaign against Iran, killed between 165 and 180 people, most of them girls aged 7 to 12, according to Iranian state media.
Missile resembles Tomahawk cruise missile
Weapons experts and independent factcheckers say the missile in the newly released footage appears consistent with a Tomahawk cruise missile, a long-range precision weapon used by the US Navy.
Trevor Ball, a conflict researcher with the Dutch factchecking group Bellingcat, said the video shows “for the first time that the United States struck the area.”
“The US is the only participant in the war known to possess Tomahawk missiles,” Ball wrote in a detailed analysis on X, noting that Israel is not known to operate the weapon.
Jeffrey Lewis, a professor of global security at Middlebury College, said the munition seen in the footage does not match known Iranian cruise missile designs and appears consistent with a Tomahawk.
US military officials had earlier indicated that Tomahawk missiles were used in the initial wave of strikes against Iran.
“The first shooters at sea were Tomahawks unleashed by the United States Navy,” General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said days after the attack.
Video geolocated to Minab compound
Factcheckers were also able to verify the video’s location using identifiable landmarks.
The footage was geolocated by Bellingcat and later verified by journalists to a housing development under construction across the street from the compound. Visible details – including signage at a clinic entrance – matched satellite imagery of the site in Minab.
Satellite images show the complex once served as an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval base, known as the Sayyid al-Shuhada military compound.
In recent years the area had undergone changes. The girls’ school was separated from the military complex by a wall between 2013 and 2016, while a clinic was constructed inside the compound and opened in 2025.
Imagery reviewed by factcheckers suggests at least seven buildings were damaged in the strike, including the clinic and other structures inside the former IRGC facility.
“Double-tap” strike suspected
Factcheckers also suggest the attack may have involved a “double-tap” strike, in which a second missile hits shortly after an initial explosion.
According to analysis cited by media outlets, the second strike occurred while students and staff were seeking shelter in a prayer hall after the first blast, contributing to the high death toll.
Conflicting claims over responsibility
Responsibility for the strike remains disputed.
Iran has blamed the United States and Israel for the attack, calling it a “blatant crime” and a violation of international law.
However, US President Donald Trump initially suggested that Iran itself might have been responsible due to inaccurate munitions. Israel has also denied carrying out the strike.
At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the incident is under investigation. “We’re investigating that. We, of course, never target civilian targets,” Hegseth said during a press briefing.
Two US officials told Reuters that American investigators believe it is possible US forces were responsible, though a final conclusion has not yet been reached.
International concern and calls for probe
The strike has drawn condemnation from international organisations and human rights groups.
United Nations officials and UNESCO described the attack as a potential violation of humanitarian law, urging an independent investigation.
Legal experts say targeting a school would likely constitute a war crime under international humanitarian law if confirmed.
Images broadcast on Iranian state television showed the funerals of the victims, with small coffins draped in Iranian flags carried through large crowds in Minab.
If confirmed as a US strike, the incident could become one of the deadliest cases of civilian casualties involving American forces in the Middle East in decades, analysts say.