Washington DC — The White House has sought to deny any possible U.S. involvement in the bombing of a girls’ elementary school in Minab, Iran, which Tehran said killed more than 168 civilians, many of them children and school staff.
Asked at a Wednesday press briefing whether the United States was behind the killing of dozens of students in the first U.S.-Israeli airstrikes against Iran on Saturday, White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt said, “The Department of Defense is investigating this matter, and I can tell you very strongly that the United States does not target civilians.”
In his first press briefing since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday, Levitt accused Tehran of using effective propaganda, claiming the U.S. was targeting a “rogue Iranian regime,” adding, “Unfortunately, a lot of people in this room fell for that propaganda.”
When asked if there was any evidence that it was not an American airstrike and if there was any assessment of Israel’s role in the school airstrike, Leavitt responded: “Again, the Department of Defense is currently investigating this matter. But once again, I would like to reaffirm that the Department of Defense and the U.S. military do not target civilians like the Iranian regime, which kills and executes its own members of the opposite sex.”
“So I want to warn you not to blame the United States when it comes to targeting civilians,” Levitt added.
Iranian officials and state TV reported Saturday morning’s attack on a girls’ primary school in Minab, killing 168 people and wounding nearly 100 at Shazareh Tayyiba Primary School.
After the strike, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the school was “bombed in broad daylight while it was full of young students.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Bagai condemned the massacre as “deliberate” and said the United States and Israel had bombed the school in part to engage Iranian forces in the area for rescue efforts. “Simply calling attacks on girls’ schools ‘war crimes’ does not capture the pure evil and depravity of such crimes,” he said.
‘Complete’ control of Iranian airspace
Meanwhile, Leavitt defended American goals in the joint Israeli-American attack on Iran amid criticism that Washington has failed to provide evidence of the imminent threat Iran poses directly to the United States and is waging a “war on Israel.”
“The decision to launch this operation was based on the cumulative impact of the various direct threats posed by Iran to the United States,” Levitt said.
“This is a rogue terrorist regime that has been threatening America, our allies, and our people for 47 years,” said Rep. Levitt. “The American people are smart enough to know this.”
Source Link : https://www.trtworld.com/article/dbc704b274c2