How would you feel if they killed your children?: US veteran confronts America over Minab school massacre

A former US combat veteran has delivered an emotional rebuke to Washington at the site of a destroyed Iranian elementary school, slamming Washington's lies about an attack that killed 168 Iranians, most of them children.

Ken O'Keefe, speaking at a press conference on Thursday, challenged Americans to imagine the horror inflicted on Iranian families when the invading US-Israeli coalition bombed the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school on February 28, the opening day of the aggression against Iran.

"Imagine if you had children in Tucson, Arizona. They got bombed by Iran, and they murdered 132 of your children. How would you feel?" O'Keefe asked.

"Would you be wrong to say, death to Iran if they murdered all of your kids? Would you? How dare you? How dare you write down these lies on the world?"

The school was triple-tapped by three distinct strikes using Tomahawk missiles—produced, as O'Keefe noted, by Raytheon in Tucson, Arizona.

The roof of the two-story building, decorated with pink flowers and green leaves, collapsed onto students inside. Iranian media reported 168 deaths, including 26 female teachers, with over 95 injured. Many victims were girls and boys between seven and twelve years old.

In posts on X from the scene, O'Keefe wrote: "My tears are flowing and my shame unbearable and my rage ferocious. How do you feel right now America?"

Multiple independent investigations, including visual analyses by CBC News and satellite imagery from Planet Labs, revealed a pattern of precision-guided munitions striking the school. Former Pentagon targeting expert Wes Bryant concluded the attack was "absolutely deliberately targeted."

Yet President Donald Trump claimed without evidence "that was done by Iran, because they're very inaccurate with their munitions." When shown video of a US Tomahawk missile striking the site, Trump said "I haven't seen it" and falsely asserted Iran possesses Tomahawks.

US war secretary Pete Hegseth told the BBC: "The only side that targets civilians is Iran."

Earlier this week, CENTCOM claimed the school was located within a "missile launch facility"—an assertion Tehran slammed as a "baseless fabrication and an appalling lie."

"Targeting an active educational institution during school hours constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law and is a clear war crime," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei emphasized. "The military commanders and United States authorities responsible for ordering and executing this catastrophic assault must be held fully accountable under international law."

Five former US officials have slammed the Pentagon's unprecedented lack of transparency, with Rep. Adam Smith calling Pentagon responses "pathetic and completely inadequate."

O'Keefe's challenge to his fellow Americans was direct: "You tell me what terrorist incident that the Islamic Republic of Iran has done to you?"

The Minab school massacre stands as one of the deadliest attacks against civilians since the start of the unprovoked, illegal and unjustified US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran on February 28.

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