Advisers to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have signaled that the Pentagon intends to keep an internal report on the U.S. airstrike that destroyed an elementary school in southern Iran out of public view until after the Nov. 3 midterm elections, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The strike on Shajarah Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, carried out on the first day of the war, killed more than 150 people, including at least 123 children. Officials said the report on the investigation has been nearly complete for months.
The advisers have communicated the plan to some Pentagon personnel, the people said, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private deliberations. No final decision has been made on the timeline for disclosing any details from the findings. A Pentagon official said the investigation is ongoing and that there were “no updates to announce at this time.” The reported delay comes amid growing political pressure over the months-long probe and a series of civilian-casualty incidents in recent months.
A Strike on the War’s First Day
The attack hit the school in Minab on Feb. 28, the opening day of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Measured by child casualties, it ranks as the deadliest U.S. military targeting error of the 21st century. Iranian officials have given a higher overall toll than the figures reported Thursday, saying more than 175 children and teachers were killed.
The Investigation
Reuters first reported on March 5 that a preliminary internal military review found U.S. forces were likely responsible for the strike. The same day, Hegseth told reporters, “We, of course, never target civilian targets,” while saying the Pentagon was investigating. On March 13, he announced that Central Command had designated a general officer from outside the command to lead a formal investigation, which he said would take “as long as necessary.”
Investigators have since found that flawed intelligence, outdated imagery and an over-reliance on artificial intelligence contributed to the attack. An earlier investigation published last month by the same outlet reported that some Pentagon personnel knew within hours that the United States was responsible. It also reported that the school’s uncorrected classification as a Revolutionary Guard facility was fed into the Maven Smart System along with other potential targets, where it emerged as one of the recommended day-one targets. More than 120 House Democrats had written to Hegseth on March 12 asking about the role of AI, including Maven. The Pentagon has not responded publicly to those questions, citing the ongoing investigation.
Congress Presses for Answers
On June 18, senators from both parties added provisions to the Senate’s annual defense authorization bill that would block Hegseth’s travel funds until the Pentagon submits several overdue reports to Congress. The reports include the Minab investigation. At that point, lawmakers on the Hill had not received the Defense Department’s report on the probe.
On July 13, more than two dozen Democratic senators led by Kirsten Gillibrand called on the administration to disclose the findings within a week and asked for an unclassified version to be submitted to Congress and the public. Their letter noted that the investigation was reportedly submitted in April and said Congress and the American people “still have not received the Department’s investigation and findings.” Gillibrand had earlier called for a bipartisan Senate Armed Services Committee investigation into the strike.
Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, raised the issue again after the Defense Department submitted its annual civilian casualty report to Congress. The report detailed three 2025 strikes in Yemen that killed 153 civilians. Reed said the department “still has not submitted a separate accounting for the Minab school strike,” and he demanded that Hegseth appear before Congress and commit to a firm date for the report. He noted that the Yemen strikes had been the deadliest U.S.-caused civilian casualty incidents in decades until Minab, where credible reports indicate at least 175 people were killed.
The House Armed Services Committee’s defense policy bill for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 also contains a provision requiring the Pentagon to submit the final report on the attack to the panel no later than 30 days after it is completed. The 30-day window would begin only once the report is finalized.
The Administration’s Position and International Findings
President Donald Trump said in June that “nobody” purposefully attacked the school, citing the investigation. Adm. Brad Cooper, head of Central Command, testified in May that the probe was “complex” because the school stood next to an active Iranian cruise missile base. Archived copies of the school’s website show it was adjacent to a compound operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
On Sept. 17, the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said it had reasonable grounds to believe U.S. forces carried out the Minab strike, using Tomahawk missiles, and that it amounted to an indiscriminate attack and a war crime under international law. The mission is chaired by jurist Sara Hossain of Bangladesh. Its findings are not binding, and fact-finding missions are investigative rather than judicial bodies.
The experts concluded that “the building of the school was the intended point of impact,” rejecting the idea that the damage resulted from an errant strike aimed at the neighboring compound. They described the school as a civilian object “whose civilian nature is apparent,” pointing to child-oriented murals, signage and playground areas, and found no evidence it was being used for military purposes. The report also said the failure to update targeting databases and verify the target “went beyond mere negligence.”
What the Midterms Mean for the Report
Democrats have said they plan aggressive oversight of Hegseth if they win control of Congress on Nov. 3, and some have raised the prospect of impeachment. Rep. Pat Ryan of New York said in a statement, “Hegseth and crew better buckle up and lawyer up.” Rep. Robert Garcia of California has said Hegseth should not remain in office.
The strike also arrived amid broader questions about the Pentagon’s civilian-harm safeguards. A Defense Department inspector general report documented an erosion of the department’s civilian harm mitigation and response capacity, and analysts who reviewed the $1.5 trillion fiscal 2027 budget request said it appears to eliminate dedicated funding for those functions.
For now, the Pentagon says the investigation is ongoing. The probe has run since March, and the war it concerns began on Feb. 28. If the reported plan holds, the findings would not become public until after voters have cast ballots on Nov. 3, at the earliest.