US Admits It Was ‘Likely Responsible’ for Mass Killing of Iran Schoolgirls
9h 39m ago by lemmy.ca/u/floofloof in world from novaramedia.com
cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/33264
US military investigators have said it is likely its forces were responsible for a strike on a girls’ school in Iran that killed scores of children and has been condemned as a war crime, according to a report by Reuters.
The attack on the Minab girls’ school in southern Iran on Saturday is believed to have killed at least 165 people, mostly children under the age of 12.
The UN’s education agency, Unesco, said the attack was a “grave violation of humanitarian law”.
US war secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that the military was investigating the incident. Investigators have not reached a final conclusion and it is still unclear what evidence contributed to their assessment, Reuters reported, citing two unnamed officials.
It was also unclear what type of munitions were used and who was responsible, the outlet said.
An investigation by news outlet Middle East Eye determined that the attack on the school was a “double tap” strike – where a target is hit a second time in order to kill rescuers who come to the aid of the injured.
“When the first bomb hit the school, one of the teachers and the principal moved a group of students to the prayer hall to protect them,” a Red Crescent medic told the outlet, citing conversations he had with survivors.
“The principal called the parents and told them to come and pick up their children. But the second bomb hit that area as well. Only a small number of those who had taken shelter survived.”
The UK has joined the war on Iran – which is illegal because it was not approved by the UN or US congress – by allowing the use of its bases for strikes against the country.
Prime minister Keir Starmer has claimed the UK’s involvement is an act of self-defence, despite the fact the US and Israel started the war.
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The signature of Whiskeyleaks
My MAGA family members are on Facebook saying that "they" (whoever "they" are, idk) intentionally put the girls in that school to be bombed so "the Democrats will have something to whine about."
It's such an astonishingly ghoulish take that has no logical basis at all; these people are beyond redemption.
Honestly their take is so egregiously bad, somewhere deep down I bet they are already on the fence.
Just respond: “Listen to yourself.”
You might break through this time with how things are.
The Trump boat has never been more on fire. It’s time to jump off, and a lot of them are starting to sense it.
I could be wrong, but I guess we’ll see.
Yeah, my own GOP family members watched the videos of Renee and Alex being murdered by ICE and said very similar things.
These people... The GOP and their supporters... They are genuinely evil.
Authoritarians are fundamentally cowards. They take the side of whoever is strongest, then invent a rationale if pushed to do so.
Ah yes, a military base that was not being used to attack the US.
Those shitty woke Democrats only care when innocents get murdered, that is why we send our daughters to be raped by Trump so Iran can't take their virginity.
That's why they have been calling everyone else "cuck". They wish they could offer their wives and daughters in sacrifice to God Emperor Trump.
funny, not like the Dems give a damn when children are slaughtered by American bombs.
I just started saying “guess you’re not going to heaven with that opinion” and walking away while their face gets red, steam starts coming out of their ears, and they start proving to you why they are the chosen ones.
For some reason it really bugs them.
Holy shit, this is the best thing I've seen all year. Right up there with Harley Quinn Cancer Ray.
Used to hear that a lot about Palestine... But then I would only see videos of IDF soldiers literally using human shields.
I wanted to believe that it wasn't us, but there's isn't any malice or incompetence I could put past this administration.
Ultimately, even if Israel were the ones that did the strike, whose bombs were they using? And whose taxes paid for those bombs? And whose leaders worked with them to start this bloodbath?
Don't worry, the targets were designated by "AI", so nobody will be held responsible.
Don't involve AI here. If they admitted plain and simple they did it on porpoise, there wouldn't be consequences either.
I don't think those students were dolphins......
I agree... But do not understand. Why dolphins?
Autocorrect wrote porpoise in your comment as opposed to purpose. Porpoises are in the dolphin family.
I won't blame autocorrect, English is not my main language and I don't think I can write purpose right without cheating. Maybe I pronounce it wrong, but what I say when I read purpose is nothing like what it should be.
Ahh, fair enough. It was a bad joke anyway, on my part.
If you have an accent that is probably what tripped up the TTS. The words purpose and porpoise are said remarkably similarly in certain accents.
American culture is imperialism.
No, we are way worse. Our super power is extinction. Where we kill off all our enemies and take what was theirs. Not just a war, an extermination.
I have to wonder if any of those third party / Stein voter / no voters are having second thoughts as to their voting choice in the previous binary election.
These deaths would not have occurred with Harris.
By the logic of these folks in the past, does that mean they are complicit with all deaths to follow?
Edit: I'll take that as a no. At least from the lemmy.ml tankie spillover bridgade below. Some serious BoTh SiDeS bullshit going down.
So I'll take this moment to note a PSA:
- Democratic Primaries are happening now.
- If you care about getting AIPAC conservatives out of the party, now is the time to vote and reform the party! Hell, even run for office! Donate, speak loudly! This is your moment!
- Once Midterms come around, we ALL need to vote Democrat across the board, regardless of state to leave nothing up to chance because we know the known-quantity that is Republican fascism is ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE worse than anything Democrats have done.
- Anything less than this is far-right online disinfo ops trying to sow defeatism and slow turnout. Don't fall for this fascist bullshit! Thank you.
I have to wonder if liberals started blaming democrats for their shortcomings if the party would actually change and become electable.
These deaths would not have occurred if Biden had put someone in charge of the DoJ willing to prosecute Trump for.... anything really.
See how easy this is?
I put most of the blame on Biden, but I also noticed one was unwilling to fundamentally address my points. Curiously, most of the people who complain about Democrats don't seem to be very engaged in the Democratic primaries. By all means, I hope said groups (btw I'm not "Liberal" unless Bernie and AOC and Mandani and Talarico are) engage heavily in these primaries and push out AIPAC and conservative Democrats just the same.
But at the end of the day, the point remains: (1) Binary outcome election. (2) Milquetoast vs. Pure Fascism. Anything less than voting Milquetoast was a +1 for Fascism and the death of these Iranian children. (Again, using the same logic as these groups used for Biden and Gaza). See how easy that was?
Now again:
-
Is there regret for not voting Harris? (hindsight 20/20 and also making the massive assumption this poll is as accurate as people actually voting -- lest we just use polls to vote instead of voting itself, right?). So far, I'm taking it as a no.
-
Are Uncommitted / Third Party / Couch-Sitters complicit in these deaths the same way complicity was drawn with Biden and Gaza by the logic of these same groups?
At the end of the day you're angry or upset or critical at the wrong people. Voter apathy is the issue at hand and milquetoastyness is the problem.
You would rather place blame on people voting FOR SOMETHING, than the party who has shit the bed so many times that the majority of Americans dont vote at all. Truly oblivious to the fact you're misplaced criticism might just be the straw to break the camels back on those people's engagement.
I'll take "milquetoastyness" over outright fascism any day. Would I love more progressive candidates across the board? Yes, absolutely! (By the way, are you engaged in your Democratic Primaries in your state right now?)
And so would any other sane, rational individual.
It's kind of like the 1 nazi at the table argument. If you're willing to sit out an election when literal nazis are running even if you don't identify as one, and don't absolutely love the alternative binary non-fascist choice, then you're basically still a nazi.
I pass your litmus test for engagement. You are kind of missing my point and talking past me though so you're not passing mine.
Turns out commenting on posts and being involved with the primaries are not mutually exclusive.
Even if every eligible voter has turned out, Trump would have won.
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/26/nx-s1-5447450/trump-2024-election-non-voters-coalition
Let’s place the blame where it belongs.
Or if you want to insist on blaming the left, blame Harris for not running a better campaign.
Two things can be true at the same time.
Indeed, it takes the aggregation of numerous groups to put someone past the post for a win; each subset pointing the finger at another does no good.
I put most of the blame on Biden, but I also noticed one was unwilling to fundamentally address my points:
-
Is there regret for not voting Harris? (hindsight 20/20 and also making the massive assumption this poll is as accurate as people actually voting -- lest we just use polls to vote instead of voting itself, right?) So far, I'm taking it as a no.
-
Are Uncommitted / Third Party / Couch-Sitters complicit in these deaths the same way complicity was drawn with Biden and Gaza by the logic of these same groups regretful of their choice?
I’m not entirely sold that a war with Iran wouldn’t have happened under Harris. She was a supporter of Israel and her unwillingness to change her stance on the genocide helped usher in her defeat in the election.
Again, considering even if the couch sitters had voted Trump would have still won, I’m not sure why you’re insisting that there should be blood on their hands for this.
The Democratic Party has a problem with fascism - they like it as much as Republicans, they just put a prettier wrapping on it.
But Harris publicly stated she sought a 2-state solution, called for a ceasefire, and sought to wind down the conflict overall. Regardless, I don't think anyone in their right mind wouldn't prefer Harris over "turn it into the Riveria" Trump who said, "Finish the job."
One is a known quantity; the other is an unknown quantity.
Again, considering even if the couch sitters had voted Trump would have still won
Again, respectfully, polls aren't votes. We don't know that. If polls were as accurate as votes, we wouldn't need to go vote.
The Democratic Party has a problem with fascism - they like it as much as Republicans
In the words of Carl Sagan, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. I see no extraordinary evidence for what can only be described as boldfaced false equivalence gaslighting, but I am also unsurprised this narrative is so common for misinformed tankies.
I think people would trust the DNC again if they started doing things to help people instead of just function as a halt to leftward politcal progress when it's their turn.
As it stands, I really don't care what they say they stand for or do, I don't really trust the DNC to do much of anything other than maintain the status quo and quietly expand the RNCs horrors.
Not that my vote even matters in our wildly broken election systems. The vote always goes to the DNC candidate and has done so for nearly four decades.
There's really just no way to actually vote for supporting the worker in the US. Hoping for change from Congress or the President is a fools gambit.
Please elaborate on how you feel your vote does not matter in your Democratic primaries!
I'll just write what I wrote elsewhere. I had much criticism of Harris as I did Biden. I also believe we should all be EXTREMELY vocal about the influence AIPAC crap and center-right conservative politics has on the Democratic party. By all means, this is the primaries -- be vocal and critical of the DNC. But it should be noted that Biden proved to be better than Trump in a myriad of ways:
- Climate Change
- Ukraine policy
- Taiwan policy
- COVID/Vaccine response
- LGBTQ+ Rights
- Women's Rights
- Education policy (tried for tuition forgiveness for the working class, blocked by Republicans).
If we only focus on one aspect of someone's policy (which even then I refuse to believe Harris is as bad as Trump on Gaza), it can skew the big picture.
Unfortunately, my vote for Harris wasn't ideal; it was simply a matter of damage-control. It's my firm belief that these US service-members would not have been sent. It's my firm belief that these 100+ Iranian school children would not have died. Leaving aside all the issues I previously mentioned where Harris and the ENTIRE Democratic party is objectively-better on (leaving aside, you know, Harris, Biden, Obama, etc. NOT being in the Epstein Files).
Because no matter who wins, the DNC does the same shit. They continue the same RNC policies and programs they vocally decried during the previous term, but quieter, they expand US surveillance, military budget and expand the tools of oppression, they do fuck all to truly address the material conditions of the working class and we just get to watch the rich get wildly richer.
The DNC just... doesn't help people. They just act as a way to lower the temperature away from revolutionary acts, but food, housing, education and medicine just keep getting more expensive, wages are utterly detached from productivity, they don't get money outta politics and they won't stand up to protect the rights of Americans.
They know damn well what candidates and policies are popular and they continuously pander to the donors instead of the hard working people that make this country turn.
Heck, whenever they do have a chance to actually work like an opposition party, there's always conveniently juuuuust enough DINO members to stymie any actual progress. That way the rest of them can throw their hands up and say "ohhh we tried, but it's their fault, I'm actually on the side of the people!" Bullshit!
They concede power to fascists again and again and make nothing more than milquetoast "resistance" to it and even exacerbate it in plenty of examples.
Biden was an utter failure. He was all talk. He didn't act to enshrine Roe v. Wade into law, he slept on his promises about minimum wage, he could only give modicum to support to union workers fighting for better working conditions and he did nothing to stop the rise of fascism in his country.
Call me crazy but I think it's on the DNC to run candidates with policies people like moreso than it's the people should be demanded to vote for whoever they run. The latter policy has done nothing to help the working class American in the past 30 years, at least, it's no shock they're tired of it.
A two state solution is supporting the genocide, let’s be real here. Harris didn’t convince enough voters that she wasn’t going to be beholden to Israel and that’s on her and the Dems. And Biden, frankly.
Trump also brokered a ceasefire that Israel broke time and time again.
Considering the Dems once again allowed enough votes to allow this admin to continue their war in Iran, what more evidence needs to be presented? They profit from war the same as their Republican counterparts.
The war is happening because it’s Israeli policy. The Biden administration’s policy was to facilitate Israeli policy entirely. The Harris campaign’s position was to adopt the Biden platform entirely. Having a super lethal military was her big announcement at the dnc convention. In the campaign, she criticized trump for being too weak on Iran. I don’t know why people think she would be better.
No Palestinian, or Iranian school children would feel safer or even as-safe with Trump than Harris as bound by the coalition of Democrats who included Rashida Tlaib herself and Bernie Sanders and other vocal critics of Israel. I certainly wouldn't for me or my family! I'd be outright praying for Harris and I'm not even religious!
Are you involved in your state Democratic primaries? Who are you supporting in said primaries?
(edit: This person's evasiveness and wedge-driving vector suggests a far-right bot that most likely does not originate from America. Tag them.)
lol. As if ‘the coalition’ has ever allowed itself to be influenced by Talib even a little. Biden presided over, and participated in an active genocide. When given the opportunity to break from that policy, Harris doubled down on it in spite of political interests.
Wake me up when Tlaib stops being a Democrat then.
Until then, she knows what you do not.
Are you involved in your state's Democratic primaries? Whom are you supporting to change the makeup of the Democratic party!?
Look, I agree with the sentiment that we need to participate in the primary process and create a better pool of Democrats. The party needs to be entirely reformed. Part of that process is smacking down comments that suggest that anyone with as destructive a history as Harris could reasonably represent such change. Fact is, Harris is entirely representative of the corrupt, feckless, collaborative nature of the modern Democratic Party. It is her and what she represents so well, that has built a party that has facilitated the rise of right wing fascism for at least 40 years. We should have no tolerance for the likes of Harris.
I had much criticism of Harris as I did Biden. But Biden proved to be better than Trump in a myriad of ways:
- Climate Change
- Ukraine policy
- Taiwan policy
- COVID/Vaccine response
- LGBTQ+ Rights
- Women's Rights
- Education policy (tried for tuition forgiveness for the working class, blocked by Republicans).
If we only focus on one aspect of someone's policy (which even then I refuse to believe Harris is as bad as Trump on Gaza), it can skew the big picture.
Unfortunately, my vote for Harris wasn't ideal; it was simply a matter of damage-control. It's my firm belief that these US service-members would not have been sent. It's my firm belief that these 100+ Iranian school children would not have died. Leaving aside all the issues I previously mentioned where Harris and the ENTIRE Democratic party is objectively-better on (leaving aside, you know, Harris, Biden, Obama, etc. NOT being in the Epstein Files).
You are making ‘harm reduction’ and an ‘anti-litmus testing’ arguments. There are merits to both, but let me explain how my positions have shifted in recent years. I hope that you and the Democratic Party are interested.
It is very clear to me that 40 years of harm reduction voting hasn’t worked at all. The party has only lurched rightward at every juncture and refuses to meaningfully mount opposition to fascism.
There are some issues that are so egregiously simple and important, that they serve as good measures of how an official will operate while in office. Genocide is an example of this. If you are willing to even just play footsie with that policy, you cannot be trusted on anything else, full stop.
As I said before, it is incumbent upon us to get better people nominated. But the party needs to understand that me (and perhaps others) are no longer willing to move to them (that is, compromise to suit their conservative ideology). They have to start coming to me/us. You will probably say that a (small-d) democratic party’s positions are dictated by who we nominate and elect, so I should be focusing my efforts on driving better nominations. I get it. But it is also true that this party has a very strong corporate-captured leadership that regularly puts its thumb on that democratic process. That is who I am addressing with these comments.
By all means, your position is valid if during the primaries; it's not valid once primaries are over and the outcome of the election is all but guaranteed to be one of the candidates on the ballot. After that, however, one begins making an accelerationist argument, and I cannot abide because along that pathway a lot of people will suffer. We are closer to the brink of WWIII or nuclear war than ever before when that wasn't always an assured outcome.
I also cannot fault the hero who didn't fight well enough versus the villain who made it necessary to fight perfectly.
I will always be on the side of anti-fascism above all. Even if that means choosing a lesser evil, or lesser poison. If only to save one life; if only to give access to abortion for one more woman; to promote one better vaccine policy, etc.
Otherwise, letting the fascist in leads to an acceleration of Entropy.
I hope one makes the case during these primaries actively and supports said candidates (do you have some in mind in any particular races), but after that we all join together to fight the much greater inevitable danger that is the Republican party.
I have followed and advocated for the practice you are describing for 40 years. I was literally making phone calls for Dukakis before I was old enough to vote. I say these things into emphasize my next point to you any anyone in party leadership that might hear my words.
You have already lost me. I’m not doing it anymore. You have to convince me that you’re worthy of my support through POLICY. Nothing you say about political dynamics is going to sway me anymore. I’m done with it. Now, maybe I’m an aberration. But, if the reporting on the DNC post mortem on the Harris campaign is accurate, I don’t think that is the case.
Those children only see US bombs raining down on them.
The rest of your comment aside: "These deaths would not have occurred with Harris" is pure wishful thinking. Unfalsifiable yes, but it flies in the face of 80 years of bipartisan US foreign policy towards Iran (and Israel).
We can't know for sure, of course. But we do know whom Bibi preferred and didn't prefer.
We also know Harris has already publicly condemned this war. It isn't much, but it's unquestionably better than the rapist pedophile who also caves to Putin at every turn.
Israel donated more to Harris' campaign than Trump's campaign, btw.
That's true. I also saw Bibi meeting with candidate-Trump more than Harris.
Couple private Mar-a-Lago meetings, if I recall.
Leaving aside PAC donations from zionist Miriam Adelson, second only to Musk in givings.
You really believe Netanyahu preferred Harris or Biden over Trump?
I think Netanyahu knew that both candidates were going to support Israel regardless.
You think one person trying to have a conversation with you is a brigade?!
Truly wild how my server scares .world into hallucinations.
Edit: he tagged me from a conversation in this thread and still doesn't even realize he is only talking to one person...
I’m not even from your server lol
The paranoia!
I love that I already have you tagged lmao.
Yes or No: Western Leaders aside, Xi is a authoritarian war criminal, as well as Putin.
Try your best to answer yes or no without Whataboutism deflection.
Edit: Oof, they dodged this mightily lol. First comment they downvoted and refused to acknowledge thus far.
How convenient!
Don't engage with any moron who thinks "not voting" is a useful strategy to get anything done.
I hear you. I don't expect much from them; I engage to ensure newcomers who know no better don't get fooled -- which is their objective to deceive.
There's no malice you should put past any US administration. Weddings aren't any more okay to bomb than schools.
The sooner you unlearn the propaganda that the US are the "good guys" of the world, the better. It isn't just about this administration either. There has never been a time in our history where we weren't needlessly cruel, as a matter of policy.
Prime minister Keir Starmer has claimed the UK’s involvement is an act of self-defence, despite the fact the US and Israel started the war
Self defense to what event? What happened that self defense was needed, exactly?
I know what everyone is trying to defend themselves from, the Epstein files, but try explaining that to the grieving parents who had their children ripped to shreds to protect a bunch of pedophiles
If they don't rape children, they murder them
So, starmer, are you in the Epstein files too or what the fuck was your reason for helping exactly again?
Self-defence against the UK failing to cash in on another war, and against falling out of favour with Trump and Netanyahu.
Self defense against their nuclear program that we said we destroyed few months ago.
I guess we only said it to justify randomly attacking them. Totally different this time.
Avoiding civilian deaths is woke
I'm kind of amazed they admitted this. Under any other president I'd have been slightly surprised they admitted it, but with Trump lackeys in charge of seemingly everything at the federal level I'm outright stunned that they admitted it.
They only admit to why they’re proud of.
Maybe they are protecting the one who signaled the objective.
"well it was either kill them or send them to an island to be raped"
JFC...US will feel the wrath of the entire muslim world sooner or later.
the want that. the US fucked around led to 9/11 which was used as an excuse to fuck around even more. Conservatives want Americans to die, especially civilians.
The satellite images aligned very well with the school's location, so they couldn't really deny it.
Absolutely monstrous to double tap a school. That doesn't happen by accident, as so many things do in war. Disgusting.
I mean we don't know for sure (afaik) it was intentionally the school, just that they were involved.
Double taps are always planned though.
Edit: Could have been bad intel that didnt indicate it was a school for example
Seems hard to miss... I'm sure they have maps somewhere. Or Google Maps. They were not raiding a town being occupied by military forces that may have been occupying a school, they were bombing the capital of a country in peace time.
I'm not convinced they have the right people in place to bother to double check anything at this point.
The double tap clearly means the target was the target, and not some missile shot down or failure that set it off course.
Fair on the potential for bad intel.
Or maybe the intel was fine and it was gross incompetence putting the coordinates in.
How much you bet they let their AI choose targets and AI simply went for maximum efficiency.
DoW: Our AI autonomously targeted a school, please let us use yours instead Anthropic so we can blame you instead if when this happens again!
The absolute ego destruction of realizing that we are, in fact, the baddies, is an extremely painful and demoralizing but important part of the healing process that will eventually lead us to a better place. But be prepared to face the worldwide reckoning, because there will be one, and it's going to be brutal and feel very unfair. Reconciliation will be hard. Endure the flagellation even when it feels like it's undeserved and make a commitment to being better, that's all we can realistically do, at least, that's the only productive thing we can do. Many won't, they'll just resist reality, refuse to acknowledge it, try to defend it, making it worse and making the process even slower.
an extremely painful and demoralizing but important part of the healing process that will eventually lead us to a better place.
Most people can't take the discomfort of socializing with friendly people or having to wait more than 30 minutes for food to be delivered. We are so far beyond an age of people willfully accepting discomfort into their lives. It plagues all sides of the political spectrum too, the lazy avoidance of facing uncomfortable realities and one's own shortcomings.
I was raised conservative by back-country, cultish apocalypse preppers and drug addicts, so the change and realizing came easier for me as soon as I got out of that environment and started seeing the world for what it really is. There were a few pivotal moments that made me suddenly say "Wait a minute, we're the BAD GUYS here" and it made me want to make the country better.
For most people it's very black-and-white though, there is no "better" or "worse" in many people's vocabulary, seriously this is a huge problem in discourse, nobody gets that something can be "worse but not bad" or "better but not good" and this is shredding our ability to bring people over to the side supporting better outcomes.
What happens when you have a DoD run by a DUI hire.
No, this is what happens when (neo)colonial empires bomb people. Past administrations just happened to prefer weddings instead.
Can't let Hegseth take all the blame here. It's the same with Noem. Yes, they're rotten, but they're also following orders.
Mass killing is misleading phrasing. It was a bombing. Mass killing to me is in repeated, individually reconsiderable acts. Such as gunning them down, or committing a massacre e.g. using machetes.
Call it an immoral double tap.
no no no. a very smart lemming informed me that it was Lockheed Martin that was the sole perpetrator in that attack. 🙄
Well they were young girls, you know Trump was going to try and fuck them one way or another
Who else would be? Was there ever any doubt about who dropped the bombs? They think that killing children is ok because you can just construct a delusion to shift the blame.
Well there would be some question about whether it was the USA or Israel that bombed the school, particularly given Israel's love of bombing schools in Gaza.
US learned how to kill children from the best at it.
It's interesting that they use the word responsible, since I would agree with one definition, but strongly disagree with another. Pretty apt analogy of this administration, a living logical fallacy and psychological phenomenon!
Cool. Hey, this sounds... fucking impossible. How can this kind of military not know what bombs they dropped?
Whoopsie, no hard feelings
No way I thought schools just did that. 🤯