Cortez Masto, Gillibrand, Colleagues Demand Pentagon Release Report on U.S. Bombing of Iranian Elementary School

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and 23 of her colleagues joined a letter led by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) demanding answers from the Department of Defense (DoD) over the U.S.'s bombing of an Iranian elementary school in February. The strike reportedly killed approximately 175 people, including 120 children.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Admiral Brad Cooper, the Senators called for the swift completion and release of the Pentagon's investigation into the school strike, which was reportedly submitted in April, but remains under review by senior military officials. They also requested that the Pentagon provide Congress with a comprehensive plan to ensure that this type of incident does not happen again.

"More than four months after the strike, and after the reported submission of the investigation in April, Congress and the American people still have not received the Department's investigation and findings," wrote the Senators. "There is no justification for withholding an unclassified accounting of what happened, what went wrong, and what the Department is doing to prevent recurrence."

In early March, Reuters first reported that U.S. military investigators believed U.S. forces were likely responsible for the strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab. Days later, Pentagon officials reportedly concluded through their preliminary investigation that a U.S. Tomahawk missile had struck the school. Investigators have also reportedly found that multiple failures led the school to be targeted in error.

"These reported issues, if accurate, raise deeply troubling questions about the integrity of U.S. target development, the adequacy of target validation and vetting procedures, the interoperability of intelligence and targeting databases, the timeliness and reliability of intelligence used for lethal targeting, and the Department's implementation of civilian harm mitigation policies," they continued. "They also raise urgent questions about whether the Department has sufficient targeting personnel, training, accountability mechanisms, and technical safeguards to support large-scale conventional operations.

Despite this reporting, Trump administration officials have not publicly taken responsibility for the strike or the resultant civilian deaths. President Trump himself has suggested multiple times that the strike was not the U.S.' fault and has even blamed Iran.

"The United States military has a legal and moral obligation to take all feasible precautions to prevent civilian harm. When a U.S. strike kills civilians, the Department owes Congress, the American people, and the victims' families a clear accounting of what happened and a credible plan to prevent future failures," they concluded.

The full text of the letter can be found here.

Senator Cortez Masto has consistently called for transparency about President Trump's reckless war of choice in Iran. This letter is the second that the Senator has joined demanding information from the DoD about its strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School. Following reports that Russia is providing Iran with intelligence to target American military forces, Senator Cortez Masto passed her bipartisan bill HONOR Act to prevent businesses from claiming a foreign tax credit or deduction against taxes paid to fund the Russian government's war machine and slammed President Trump for providing sanctions relief to Russia. She has also supported numerous war powers resolutions to limit the Trump Administration's ability to take further military action against Iran without a debate and vote in Congress.

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