In the opening hours of the war against Iran, on February 28, 2026, the U.S. military fired Tomahawk cruise missiles directly at a school in the southern city of Minab. At least 156 people were killed that morning at Shajareh Tayyebeh school—120 of them were children and 26 were teachers. It will go down in history as one of the gravest war crimes committed by the U.S. government since Vietnam. Drop Site News conducted a two-month investigation into the strike, speaking with survivors, first responders, parents, doctors, teachers, psychologists, and other witnesses.
Some of them had never before shared their experiences of that day. This is their story. Read the full investigation: Middle East Massacre at Minab: The School That Became a Grave Jeremy Scahill , Murtaza Hussain , and Reza Sayah · Sep 30 On the morning of Saturday, February 28, people across Iran began their day like any other. It was one week into the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, and people were prep… Read full story
Drop Site News introduces its investigation into the US cruise missile strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab. It names the US military as the attacker, says the 156 dead were killed, and identifies 120 of them as children and 26 as teachers. The one weakness is a single sentence in which the outlet gives its own legal verdict, a war crime, without saying who has found it to be one.
States one side's claim as fact
Minor
“It will go down in history as one of the gravest war crimes committed by the U.S. government since Vietnam.”
Why this matters
In its own voice, Drop Site News calls the strike "one of the gravest war crimes" and predicts how history will judge it. It attributes this verdict to no court, investigator or legal expert.
The impression it gives
A reader takes it that the strike has already been established as a war crime and ranked against other US crimes since Vietnam.
The context
The article's facts are grave and stated plainly: the US fired missiles at a school and killed 156 people, most of them children. Whether the strike is a war crime is a legal judgement, and the piece gives no finding or source for it. A report built on these facts can carry the charge as the view of named survivors, lawyers or investigators without losing any of its force.
How we know
Elsewhere in the article“fired Tomahawk cruise missiles directly at a school”