What we know about alleged strike on Iran school

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PARIS - The UN's top rights official Friday urged the US to swiftly probe a strike on an Iranian school which a New York Times investigation says was most likely carried out by Washington.

Iran has blamed Israel and the United States for the air strike on the elementary school in the southern city of Minab on Saturday which it said killed more than 150 people.

Neither the US nor Israel has claimed responsibility for the strike in the opening hours of their war with Iran, but US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the Pentagon is investigating.

AFP has been unable to access the location to independently verify the toll or the circumstances.

Iranian authorities have to give explicit approval to foreign media organisations wishing to report outside Tehran.
Here is what we know:

Verified footage

Footage filmed from a parking lot showed black smoke billowing from a damaged building adorned with murals featuring drawings of crayons, children and an apple.

AFP has geolocated the clip to a building in Minab in Iran's southern Hormozgan province that appeared to be a school, though it has not been able to independently verify the nature of the site.

AFP has confirmed the building was located in close proximity to two sites controlled by the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The Shahid Absalan clinic, under the supervision of the IRGC navy's medical command, lies 238 metres (780 feet) from the site, while the Seyed al-Shohada IRGC cultural complex is 286 metres away.

Minab is strategically located close to the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most vital shipping lanes, especially for oil and gas.

AFP could not independently verify the date the footage from the car park was filmed.

Iranian state television and a local official identified the site as the Shajare Tayyebeh girls' elementary school in Minab.

What Iran says

Iran has said more than 150 people were killed in what President Masoud Pezeshkian described as US-Israeli strikes on the school.

According to state media, Iran on Tuesday held funerals for at least 165 people including students killed in the alleged strike.

State television carried images showing a large crowd of mourners in Minab weeping over what appeared to be bodies wrapped in white shrouds.

Other images released by state media on Tuesday showed individuals preparing coffins draped in the Iranian flag -- some bearing photographs of children.

Another aerial image showed excavators digging out at least 100 graves at an unidentified mass burial site.

AFP has been unable to independently verify the date the images were taken or access the location to verify the circumstances surrounding the events.

US 'most likely': report

The New York Times reported on Thursday that US military statements indicating forces were attacking naval targets near the Strait of Hormuz, where an IRGC base is located, "suggest they were most likely to have carried out the strike".

An analysis of social media posts from the time of the attack, as well as photos and videos from witnesses, indicated that the Shajare Tayyebeh elementary school was struck at the same time as a Revolutionary Guards' naval base sites, the Times said.

Pentagon investigation

Rubio on Monday said the United States would not intentionally target a school.

"The United States would not deliberately target a school. Our objectives are missiles, both the ability to manufacture them and the ability to launch them," he told reporters.

The Pentagon is investigating the alleged incident, he added.

'Very quickly'

UN rights chief Volker Turk called it an "absolutely tragic incident".

"What we have asked for is obviously prompt, transparent and impartial investigations, which we understand has been announced by the United States," he told reporters in Geneva on Friday.

"We need this to happen very quickly and we need to also make sure that there is accountability as well as redress for the victims," he said.

Israel not aware

Israel's military said on Sunday it was not aware of any US or Israeli strike on a school.

"At this point not aware of an Israeli or an American strike there... We're operating in an extremely accurate manner," military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters.

Human rights group

Norway-based rights group Hengaw said the Shajare Tayyebeh school was holding its morning session at the time and reportedly had about 170 students present.