Minab Massacre: Jeremy Scahill Investigates U.S Bombing That Killed 120+ Iranian Kids

Summary
In this broadcast of Democracy Now!, host Amy Goodman interviews investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of Drop Site News, on his report titled “Massacre at Minab: The School That Became a Grave.” The segment details the February 28, 2026 U.S. missile strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school complex in Minab, southern Iran, which killed 120 children and 26 teachers. Scahill reviews survivor accounts, debris evidence, forensic satellite reconstructions, and the operational reliance on automated AI targeting systems such as Project Maven.

What is shown

• [00:12] Footage of U.S. aircraft carriers and naval strike groups deployed in the Middle East.
• [00:26] Video and photographic documentation of the destroyed school interior and exterior in Minab, alongside portrait boards of slain students and teachers.
• [03:45] Photographic evidence of recovered Tomahawk missile debris bearing manufacturer labels from Raytheon and Globe Motors.
• [06:28] Drop Site News interview segment with preschool teacher Hossniyeh Salem, intercut with archival classroom footage, describing hearing morning strikes in Tehran, gathering children inside, and fleeing following the direct missile impact.
• [11:48] Drone footage of mass graves excavated for the victims in Minab.
• [12:02] Interview with grieving father Yaghoub Yazdanpanah recounting his attempt to rescue his young daughter Fatemeh from the rubble.
• [13:21] Testimonies from Iranian Red Crescent emergency workers describing recovering fragmented remains and finding parents searching through debris.
• [15:36] Archival press gaggle aboard Air Force One (dated March 7, 2026), where President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth deny U.S. responsibility and blame Iran.
• [16:13] Excerpt of a Fox News interview where Donald Trump claims photographic evidence of Tomahawk missile fragments could be “AI generated.”
• [18:24] Forensic Architecture satellite mapping analysis tracing the site’s history from an IRGC base pre-2014 to a civilian school and clinic from 2015 onward, highlighting visible playgrounds, murals, and children in open courtyards.
• [22:22] Drawings created in trauma therapy by surviving children, including a sketch of a severed hand.

Claims & numbers

• Amy Goodman states the strike killed at least 156 people, including 120 children and 26 teachers (all women), and notes that a UN fact-finding mission characterized the bombing as a war crime [00:32].
• Jeremy Scahill reports that the attack occurred during active diplomatic backchannel talks mediated by the Sultanate of Oman, which had scheduled technical discussions in Vienna for the following week [02:05].
• Scahill claims the school was struck directly by Tomahawk cruise missiles multiple times, including consecutive strikes as first responders arrived, constituting what Iranian officials termed a “triple-tap” strike with up to 13 missiles launched [04:44, 05:07].
• Scahill states that under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon eliminated its civilian harm mitigation division and leaned heavily into AI targeting workflows, specifically Palantir’s Maven systems, relying on obsolete satellite records that failed to reflect the IRGC’s relocation of the military base two miles away over a decade earlier [17:23, 18:20].

Notable quotes

• [05:09] Jeremy Scahill: “The Justice Minister of Iran told me this isn’t a double-tap strike, this is a triple-tap strike.”
• [16:26] Donald Trump: “It is, but it’s also possible that those images that you have are AI generated.”
• [17:23] Jeremy Scahill: “...they eliminated the entire department that is supposed to do civilian harm mitigation, that they used AI, including Maven systems developed by Palantir, to rush to develop as many targets as possible...”

Assessment
This is a standard investigative news broadcast presenting extensive primary reporting from Drop Site News and spatial analysis by Forensic Architecture. The reporting relies on verified survivor testimonies, serial-numbered munition fragments, and time-series commercial satellite imagery to substantiate its findings and refute official denials.

Described by gemini-3.8-flash on 2026-10-12 from the video’s audio and frames.