Mināb
Mināb
Mināb. The city lies in southern Iran at approximately 27.13° N, 57.09° E. It is 25 kilometres inland from the northern shore of the Sea of Oman and 16 meters above sea level. The last census in 2016 showed 73,000 people lived in the city. Mināb is part of the wider Mināb sub-province, which had a population of approximately 259,000 in the same 2016 census.
The 240-kilometre-long Mināb River rises in the Sarvestān highlands, crosses Mināb city, and empties into the Sea of Oman. Agriculture and fishing and handicrafts. Date palm production, mangoes, bananas, wheat and barley. All fruits of the river.
Saturday. 28 February 2026. It was Ramadan and the start of an ordinary school day in Mināb. Clear skies. Boys and girls made their way to school.
One of those schools was the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School. Both boys and girls attended this school. Boys on the ground floor. Girls on the upper floor. Some were children of members of the Revolutionary Guard and others were from ordinary local families. But children. All of them.
The school was once part of a military site. Satellite images from May 2015 still showed watchtowers, a rooftop antenna and a secured perimeter. These disappeared over the following year. By late 2016, new walls and public street entrances separated the school from the former military grounds. Playground markings appeared by 2017. The walls were painted blue and pink by 2018. The school’s address was public: Resalat Boulevard, Alley №9, behind Asef Brigade.
Children arrived at the school. A normal day. Ramadan. But at around 10:15 teachers heard the news that Tehran was attacked. They discussed whether Mināb was at risk. Staff decided to close the school and began calling parents. One mother received a call at 11:05. Another received one at 11:17. Children waited in the yard. Some waited in a prayer room.
Around 11:22. The first wave. Nine precision strikes. Forensic Architecture and Sky matched closed-circuit footage, social-media videos, satellite images and witness accounts. They found nine separate morning impact points across about 90 seconds.
The first weapon struck 120 to 130 metres from the school. At the same time, another struck close to the nearby cultural centre. Ten seconds after the first impact, the fourth weapon struck the school. During those ten seconds, nine-year old Mohammad Taha Jafari was in the yard. He heard the first strike and ran back to the school. He was killed when the school was hit.
The weapon struck the middle of the school. Precision. It passed through the roof. It passed through the upper section of the school. The girls’ section. And then exploded. The blast opened a five-meter crater. It destroyed much of the western structure, including the school’s entrance area.
Eleven-year-old Reyhandeh Mehdi Khah was in the upper floor when the bomb detonated. She said the building shook side to side. Glass fragments cut her face. She, and other pupils, went through an opening and crossed debris to reach the yard. Her younger sister did not escape the bomb.
Among the concrete: backpacks, desks, benches, textbooks.
Parents and residents and Red Crescent workers were part of the first rescue. They entered the rubble. They lifted small pieces of concrete and had no heavy equipment. An improvised rescue. Excavators and machinery arrived later. Ambulances and private vehicles carried the wounded and the dead. Refrigerated vehicles were used because the morgue was full and some parents had to wait for DNA testing to be done for identification of their children.
Three hours after this attack, while parents searched, three Tomahawk missiles struck nearby the school. No mercy. One missile struck a clinic or medical facility and a worker was killed. The worker returned to the clinic to fetch supplies.
The US Tomahawk that struck the school killed 73 boys and 47 girls that day. The school and at least six adjacent structures were the only places struck within five kilometres between 28 February and 2 March.
Trump blamed Iran.
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