It's looking more and more likethe US Navy was responsible for killing more than 150 Iranian schoolgirls in the first hours of Operation Epic Fury,according to separate analyses of new video performed by research firm Bellingcat and theNew York Times,who each tapped weapons experts to study the footage. Their conclusionscontradict President Trump's casual accusation that inaccurate Iranian weapons were to blame.

The strike occurred in the southern city of Minab on the morning of Saturday February 28 -- Saturday is a school day in Iran. Iran reports that 175 people were killed, mostly children, at the girls' elementary school near an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base. Whilesome, including former National Security AdvisorJohn Bolton,reflexively blamed Iran for having a school near a military installation, others were quick topoint outthat US military bases around the world are peppered with schools, to say nothing of the fact that the United States and Israel had launched a Pearl Harbor-style surprise attack amid ongoing negotiations. Yet,the Pentagon may have relied on exceedingly obsolete intelligence, as witnesses say the school was located on a site previously used by the IRGC -- some15 years ago.

Thenew video captures a Tomahawk cruise missilehitting a reportedmedical clinicon an Iranian naval base next to the Shajareh Tayyebeh Girls' School, with geolocation showing smoke already rising from the facility which taught6- to 12-year-olds.Israel notably doesnothave Tomahawks, but the US Navy launches them from ships, and the service has posted multiplevideosofcruise missilesbeing fired from destroyers during the war on Iran. Trevor Ball, a former U.S. Army explosive ordnance disposal technician working with Bellingcat,concludedthe video shows a Tomahawk, as did Chris Cobb-Smith of Chiron Resources for theTimes. In a March 2 briefing, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. DanCainetold reporters that“the first shooters at sea were Tomahawks unleashed by the United States Navy.”

New video footage shows a US Tomahawk missile hitting an IRGC facility in Minab, Iran, on Feb 28, showing for the first time that the US struck the area. The footage also shows smoke already rising from the vicinity of the girls’ school, where 175 people were reportedly killed.pic.twitter.com/4jBXrNcRJO

Aboard Air Force One on Saturday,President Trump brushed off the notion that the US military was responsible, instead suggesting that Iran accidentally bombed themselves. “No. In my opinion andbased on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran...They’re very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions,” hetoldreporters. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the reporter the incident was being investigated, adding that "the only side that targets civilians is Iran” (a claim that Gaza Palestinians and IDFwhistleblowerswould certainly take issue with). Trump administration officials hadpreviously confidedto members of Congress that the Pentagon was going after targets in the area, and said Israel wasn't working that zone.

Operation Epic Fury seems to have been predicated on the ambitious assumptionthat a decapitation strike that took out Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and senior leaders would prompt the country's citizens to quickly sweep the remainder of the Islamic Republic's government from power. While there have been images of small groups of Iranians cheering on the initial attacks - who have beendirectly threatenedwith death, huge masses of Iranians have turned out to show their support for the government.

The Iranian government's social media team seized on the school attack,posting a video depicting a schoolgirl who goes about her morning only to be killed by the Americans.

🇮🇷 Iranian media published a video dedicated to the students killed in the US-Israeli attack on a school in Minab.pic.twitter.com/iGNGqVTcjR

...In another lego style animation,Iran suggests thatIsrael has blackmailed Trumpinto the war via damning Epstein-era photos:

Iran media post lego how war endspic.twitter.com/YVuMLXzAhA

Source: ZeroHedge News