The Trump administration bombed a school with an “untested” missile on the same day as a strike that killed 175 at another school, according to a report.
A new Precision Strike Missile, which has never been tested in combat and only made it out of the prototype phase last year, was used in the attack, The New York Times reported.
The Times reported that “a weapon bearing the hallmarks of a newly developed U.S.-made ballistic missile,” known as a PrSM, hit a sports hall and adjacent elementary school near an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps military facility in southern Iran.
The paper made the conclusion by speaking to experts and insiders, and by conducting video analysis. A U.S. official confirmed to the Times the weapon was deployed, and the BBC also reported that a PrSM was used.
The attack came on the first day of the war on Feb. 28, the same day a double strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab, southern Iran, killing 175, including more than 100 schoolgirls, according to Iranian media.
President Donald Trump, 79, desperately sought to shift the blame for that bombing. “No, in my opinion, and based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran,” he told reporters earlier this month.
“They’re very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions.”
The PrSM strike, as well as others in the nearby city of Lamerd, killed at least 21 people. Officials said more than 100 people were also injured. A PrSM is designed to inflict maximum damage by detonating just above its target and blasting out small tungsten pellets. The site was pockmarked with holes of the same size as the pellets after the strikes, the Times analysis found.
The sports hall, which was used for kids’ soccer teams and a girls’ volleyball team, was soaked in blood, the Times reported. Volleyball players in the middle of a training session were among those killed, Iranian officials have said.
Negin Bagheri, an Iranian journalist, said that a 10-year-old fourth-grader, and a fifth-grader, were among the slain players.
It is not known if the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps military facility near the school was affected.
On March 4, United States Central Command boasted of the weapon’s debut. Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, said the armed forces had “Leveraged innovation to create dilemmas for the enemy.”
Two experts verified the use of the PrSM, which only advanced from prototype testing last year. Since the weapon is so new, it is difficult to ascertain its reliability or flaws.
Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for CENTCOM, suggested that the strikes may have accidentally killed civilians. “We’re aware of the reports and are looking into them. U.S. forces do not indiscriminately target civilians, unlike the Iranian regime,” he told the Times.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Defense Department for comment.
