Hegseth Admits to Minab Atrocity; Former U.S. Officials Criticize Pentagon’s Silence

Tehran - BORNA - Five former U.S. officials, including a former senior military legal official of the U.S. Army, criticized the Pentagon for its refusal to acknowledge the possibility of a U.S. role in the deadly attack on the Shajareh Tayyiba School in Minab. Some of these officials stated that it is highly unusual that after the passage of this long period, even basic information about this attack has not been released.

In the course of the missile attack on the Minab Martyrs School on the first day of the U.S. and Zionist regime’s attack on Iran, 168 school children and teachers were martyred, and during the past two months, the Pentagon has only announced that this incident "remains under investigation". A Pentagon official, in response to questions from the BBC regarding this attack and the lack of transparency, stated: "This incident is currently under investigation," adding that further details will be released "at the appropriate time".

Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Secretary of War, on Wednesday in a meeting with members of Congress, without condemning his country's brutal attack on the Shajareh Tayyiba School in Minab at the beginning of the aggression against Iranian soil, insolently said that the incident related to the bombing of this school was "regrettable" and that investigations into it are still ongoing.

The BBC stated that it had reviewed three historical cases in which civilians were killed in U.S. military operations, and in all three cases, the Pentagon had released much more information in less than a month. Rachel E. VanLandingham, a retired colonel and former senior legal advisor at the U.S. Central Command during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, said the current U.S. position "departs dramatically from past standard responses". She added: "Previous governments at least demonstrated their commitment to the laws of war," and specified that what is missing in the current positions of the U.S. government is a commitment to accountability and ensuring that such an event does not happen again.

U.S. President Donald Trump, on March 7th, claimed without providing evidence that Iran was responsible for the attack on the Minab school; a ridiculous claim that even the White House spokesperson in their press briefing was unable to defend. A few days later, in response to a question about a video showing a U.S. Tomahawk missile hitting the military base adjacent to the school, he said: "I haven't seen it," and claimed without providing evidence that Iran also possesses Tomahawk missiles.

Wes Bryant, a former senior Pentagon advisor in the field of precision warfare and civilian harm mitigation, told the BBC that initial military investigations are usually conducted to determine two issues: first, whether harm was actually inflicted on civilians, and second, whether the U.S. had operations in that area and might have been the cause. He added: "In terms of the administrative process, this very issue shows more than ever that they already know the U.S. was responsible for this; otherwise, they wouldn't be conducting such an investigation. They just don't want to admit it or talk about it".

Another former U.S. Department of Defense official also told the BBC that some investigations related to civilian casualties might be time-consuming depending on the complexity of the case, but in this instance, "the ambiguity is unusually high, while the story is not that complex". He added: "Usually, the Pentagon quickly or relatively quickly accepts responsibility and then takes more time to provide full details; for this reason, this situation is problematic for me".

Meanwhile, Democratic representatives of the U.S. Congress have repeatedly in letters to Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Secretary of War, demanded accountability regarding the Minab attack, and their first question has been whether the U.S. carried out this attack or not. The BBC stated it had seen two response letters from the Pentagon sent on behalf of Hegseth, but no answer was given to any of the questions in them. In one of these letters sent to the Democrats on April 2nd, it was stated that an investigating officer from outside the CENTCOM chain of command has been tasked with the review, and the results will be released upon completion.

The BBC also stated that it contacted 15 Republican members of the U.S. Congress regarding the management of this case, but all of them refused to comment. Republican Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana also condemned this attack on March 10th in a conversation with the New York Times, but claimed that the attack was a "terrible mistake".

Pentagon officials, since the start of the war against Iran, have held several classified briefings for members of Congress, and in these sessions as well, they have been questioned about the Minab attack. Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told the BBC that Pentagon officials responded by saying they could not comment due to the ongoing investigation; a response he described as "deplorable and completely inadequate".

The BBC further pointed to three historical examples in which civilians were killed in U.S. operations but the U.S. government acted with more transparency: In the drone attack near Kabul airport in August 2021, the Pentagon initially claimed it targeted a vehicle belonging to an imminent threat from ISIS, but it later became clear that a family of 10, including seven children, was killed. Less than three weeks later, the Pentagon accepted responsibility and apologized.

In the attack on the Kunduz hospital in Afghanistan in October 2015, in which at least 42 people including patients and staff of a medical institution were killed, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan testified in Congress five days later that this attack was an "American decision within the framework of the U.S. chain of command," and that same day the White House apologized.

In the attack on the Al-Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad in 1991, in which 408 civilians were killed, the U.S. government acknowledged from the beginning that the attack was carried out by the U.S. and that there were civilian victims.

Charles O. Blaha, the former director of the Office of Security and Human Rights at the U.S. State Department, also said the lack of transparency in Washington stems from the government's "unwillingness" to oppose the President; because Trump had identified Iran as responsible for the attack—a claim he described as "very far from reality and entirely false". Blaha also attributed the U.S. government's relative silence in the Minab crime case to an approach that considers any negative news about the war as "unpatriotic".

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