The Guardian cross-referenced verified videos from the site with satellite imagery to confirm the location of the primary school. Shajareh Tayyebeh school was adjacent to a cluster of buildings that form the local Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) barracks and support buildings. The complex next to the school includes a medical clinic and pharmacy, which has signage bearing the IRGC logo and reads “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy Medical Command”. Also in the wider complex is what appears to be a gymnasium or concert space, which is marked “Seyyed al-Shohada Cultural Complex of the Revolutionary Guard”. The school’s location has also been verified by Osint (open source intelligence) researchers, the Iranian student network, and independent Farsi factchecking service Factnameh.
Minab school bombing: how the worst mass casualty event of the Iran war unfolded – a visual guide
A strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh school during the US-Israeli bombing campaign killed up to 168 people. The Guardian has pieced together the incident and its aftermath using verified footage and images from the site Supported by guardian.org About this content Tess McClure and Deepa Parent Tue 3 Mar 2026 07.45 EST Prefer the Guardian on Google
Above the pastel murals of trees, paintbrushes, crayons and microscopes, black smoke rises. The glass windows of the school have been blown out by the force of the blast, and its curtains hang shredded from the frames.
Against one burned-out wall, the remains of a playground lie scattered: a red plastic slide, a jumble of child-sized chairs. On an overturned bookshelf a pair of pink plastic sandals have been neatly placed, now covered in dust from the blast.
The missile hit during the school’s morning session. In Iran, the school week runs from Saturday to Thursday, so when US and Israeli bombs began falling at around 10am on Saturday, classes were under way. At a point between 10am and 10.45am, a missile directly hit Shajareh Tayyebeh school, in Minab, southern Iran, demolishing its concrete building and killing dozens of seven to 12-year-old girls. Footage released by Iran foreign press office shows destruction inside girls’ school
Photographs and verified videos from the site, which the Guardian has not published due to their graphic nature, show children’s bodies lying partly buried under the debris. In one video, a very small child’s severed arm is pulled from the rubble. Colourful backpacks covered with blood and concrete dust sit among the ruins. One girl wears a green dress with gingham patches on her pockets and the collar, her form partly obscured by a black body bag. Screams can be heard in the background.
One distraught man stands in the ruins of the school, waving textbooks and worksheets as rescuers dig by hand through the debris. “These are the schoolbooks of the children who are under these ruins, under this rubble here,” he shouts. “You can see the blood of these children on these books. These are civilians, who are not in the military. This was a school and they came to study.” A man in a face mask holds a book while around him people dig through rubble Rescue workers and residents search through the rubble. Photograph: AP
According to Iranian state media, up to 168 people were killed by the strike and 95 injured – figures that the Guardian has not been able to verify. With independent reporting severely restricted in Iran, and much of the country still experiencing internet blackouts, the Guardian has used verified video footage, geolocated images, satellite imagery and interviews to piece together a more detailed account of the Minab girls’ school bombing – the worst mass casualty event of the US-Israeli-led attack so far – which has been described by Unesco as a “grave violation” of international law. A collection of school bags covered in concrete dust. The death toll has not been verified, but some reports suggest that 168 people were killed, while 95 were injured. Photograph: Xinhua/Alamy
The Guardian cross-referenced verified videos from the site with satellite imagery to confirm the location of the primary school. Shajareh Tayyebeh school was adjacent to a cluster of buildings that form the local Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) barracks and support buildings. The complex next to the school includes a medical clinic and pharmacy, which has signage bearing the IRGC logo and reads “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy Medical Command”. Also in the wider complex is what appears to be a gymnasium or concert space, which is marked “Seyyed al-Shohada Cultural Complex of the Revolutionary Guard”. The school’s location has also been verified by Osint (open source intelligence) researchers, the Iranian student network, and independent Farsi factchecking service Factnameh.
There is no indication, however, that the school is in any sense a military-use building: its classroom building and playground is walled off from the rest of the IRGC compound, and the colourful murals on its walls are visible in some satellite imagery.
Nor were its classes exclusively reserved for children of military families, Shiva Amelirad, a Canada-based representative of the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, a network of teachers’ unions in Iran, told the Guardian. The school also enrolled many children from the local community, particularly those who could not afford private school fees. “Because its tuition was lower than many other private schools, and due to the high overcrowding in public schools, ordinary families had been compelled to enrol their children there,” Amelirad said. Early videos from the scene of the school bombing also show thick smoke rising from at least one nearby building.