00:00Every U.S. Senate Democrat has signed a letter sent to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
00:05requesting a swift investigation of airstrikes on a girls' school in Iran that killed scores
00:11of children and any other potential U.S. military actions causing civilian harm.
00:17The strike on February 28th on a school in Minab on Iran's Persian Gulf Coast killed
00:22mostly schoolgirls aged between 7 and 12 years of age.
00:26U.S. President Trump denied it was a U.S. strike even as debris from an American Tomahawk missile
00:32was recovered near the scene.
00:33Trump blamed the Iranians.
00:36But Reuters News Agency reported on March 5th that U.S. military investigators believe
00:40it was likely that U.S. forces were responsible for the strike on the school on February 28th
00:46as U.S. and Israeli forces launched their attacks on Iran.
00:50And it's emerged that the strike may well have been based on out-of-date military intelligence.
00:56Let's bring in Fraser Jackson, our correspondent in Washington.
01:00Fraser, so the Democrats united on this issue, it seems.
01:06Yeah, a significant number of Democrats asking questions of the administration.
01:10Those questions are continuing to mount after the strike on a school in the opening days of
01:15the Iran war which killed over 170 people.
01:18Many of them were young girls at that school.
01:21It was reported recently that the school was on a U.S. target list and may have been mistaken
01:27for a military site due to outdated intelligence.
01:31It's believed that the school building was formerly a part of a nearby military base which was being
01:37targeted.
01:38One person familiar with the ongoing investigation and the school strike told the Washington Post
01:45that the building had been identified as a factory and had been an approved strike target.
01:51But like I said, Democrats on the Hill have written to Pete Hexer to demand answers as this
01:56investigation continues.
01:57There's also questions around what role AI has played in the war in Iran.
02:02The Democrats are also asking questions about that.
02:05That includes the selection of targets as well as the intelligence that goes into the selecting
02:10of those targets and the legal determinations during the ongoing military operation.
02:15Trump, for his part, has said that he will accept the findings of this investigation but
02:19has muddied the waters by suggesting that Iran had committed this attack despite evidence that
02:24the school had been hit by Tomahawk missiles which Iran does not possess.
02:28Trump claimed ignorance but a preliminary inquiry has shown that it was indeed the U.S.
02:34that hit that school which was first reported by the New York Times but the White House
02:39likely waiting for the final findings of this investigation which is currently ongoing.
02:44As you say, the investigation ongoing, Trump saying one thing then changing his mind.
02:49All in all, it must be making many people doubt what they're hearing, doubt what people are saying.
02:57Well, it's kind of part of the course so far.
03:00We've had very mixed messaging coming from the White House, not only around specific incidents in this war,
03:08which, of course, the White House is not even calling a war despite the fact that Donald Trump himself
03:13has called it a war multiple times.
03:15But the actual aims of this war have also moved back and forwards and from what we've heard from senators
03:21that have been briefed on Capitol Hill by intelligence officials and defence department officials,
03:27they also are hearing shifting things as well.
03:30So, there is still a lot of unknown questions, a lot of unknown answers rather,
03:34that we are not learning about just as of yet.
03:38But Donald Trump, of course, is saying that this war will be wrapping up soon
03:41but then is also saying that the war will not be wrapping up until the war aims of the DOD
03:49and the government have been fulfilled.
03:51So, very mixed messaging now.
03:53But the one thing that Donald Trump seems to have really moved on
03:56was the fact that the oil prices have spiked so significantly since this war was launched.
04:01And it appears to have been that that prompted him to say that the war would be over soon.
04:06That, after the back of a tweet from an official, affected the price of oil,
04:11which was then swiftly, swiftly deleted.
04:14So, like I said, many unanswered questions.
04:17But Donald Trump's still continuing with this war as it stands.
04:21And, of course, he is still joining in those strikes on Iran alongside the Israelis as well.
04:28Fraser, thank you very much indeed, Fraser Jackson.
04:30I corresponded there in Washington.
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