"Little children who knew nothing about politics or wars"
MAHMOUD ASLAN
Minab and Tehran (Iran)
Mohammed Shariatmadar stood before the rubble of the Shajareh Tayyiba girls' primary school in Minab, southern Iran, on Saturday morning, unable to process what he was seeing. His six-year-old daughter, Sara, a second-grade student, was one of dozens of girls killed when the school was bombed in the early hours of the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran.
Immediately after the attack, he stood in the shadow of a cracked wall, staring at the ground and ignoring the commotion around him. He didn't approach the building, which had been cordoned off, but he didn't move away either. He clasped his hands together, separated them, and clasped them together again in a repetitive motion. Each time a paramedic came out or an ambulance moved, he quickly raised his head and looked down again. He didn't ask anyone any direct questions. He just waited for them to call his daughter's name.
When the families were finally directed to a designated meeting point to receive their children's bodies, she moved forward slowly. When asked if she needed help, she silently shook her head and waited for her daughter's body to be brought out.
“I can’t understand how a place where innocent children learn can be bombed like this,” Shariatmadar told Drop Site. “We’re talking about young children who knew nothing about politics or war. And yet, they are the ones paying the highest price.”
About 170 students were inside the building attending morning classes.
According to the Minab prosecutor's office, at least 148 people died, many of them girls between the ages of seven and twelve, while another 89 people were injured.
It is unclear whether it was a US or Israeli attack. On Saturday, a CENTCOM spokesman said they were "investigating" the reports.
“My heart is broken,” Shariatmadar said. “For Sara and for all the children we have lost today. I want the world to know that children are the true victims. Every day that passes without a solution increases the pain and suffering of both the families and the children.”
Minab is far from Tehran, but the school was located next to a naval base belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Hormozgan province, where the small town of Minab is located, borders the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most strategic waterways.
A resident of Minab, who spoke to Drop Site on condition of anonymity, said the explosions rocked the town Saturday morning, causing immediate panic among residents. Reports then began to surface that the school had been hit.
"Everyone ran towards the school as soon as they heard the explosions," the resident said. "Chaos completely reigned. Security forces were trying to move families away, fearing the area would be attacked again."
The school building was reduced to a massive pile of rubble, and dozens of students were trapped beneath the concrete. People frantically began trying to dig them out with their bare hands. Families wandered around in shock, searching for their children in the debris. "The final death toll was approximately half the school's students," said the resident.
Fatima al-Zahra Mohammad Ali, a nine-year-old student, was among the fatalities. “When we arrived at the school, the place was in chaos,” said her mother, Amina Ansari. The girl’s father, Mohammad Ali, who lost his right leg during the Iran-Iraq War, declined to comment.
“The school itself didn’t know how to handle the situation,” Ansari said. “There was no accurate information about what was happening. Every time we asked someone, they told us, ‘Be patient until we get the girls out from under the rubble.’” The family didn’t learn that Fatima had died until around 4 p.m., when her body was discovered.
In a statement, President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned the "brutal attack by the American and Zionist aggressors," calling it a "barbaric act [that] marks another dark page in the history of countless crimes committed by the invaders of this land."
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted a picture of the destroyed school on social media. “It was bombed in broad daylight, when it was full of young students,” Araghchi wrote. “Dozens of innocent children have been killed in this place alone. These crimes against the Iranian people will not go unanswered.”
“We don’t understand the reasons for the US attack on Iran,” he continued in a subsequent post. “Perhaps the US administration was drawn into it. This is what I do know: Iran will punish those who kill our children.”
Seyyed Ibrahim Mirkhayali, a municipal employee in Bandar Abbas, was also at the school gate. His nine-year-old daughter, Zeinab, a fourth-grade student, was killed in the bombing.
“I was at work when my wife called and told me that the Minab girls’ primary school had been bombed. At first, I couldn’t process what I was hearing. So I immediately left and drove to the school,” Mirkhayali told Drop Site. When he arrived, he found a large crowd of parents waiting outside. Some were crying. Others remained in deep silence.
"The atmosphere was terrifying and catastrophic. The fathers and mothers were in a deathly silence, filled with fear and dread for their daughters. We didn't know who had gotten out and who was still under the rubble," he said.
According to him, news leaked out slowly from inside the school as the search and rescue operations continued. Each name announced changed the fate of an entire family.
"How long are we going to live like this? Why can't the United States and Israel reach an agreement with Iran and end this war? What has happened is a crime," he stated. "Since the last war, we haven't lived a stable life in our country because of the United States and Israel."
The family waited all afternoon. At dusk, they were informed that Zeinab was among the dead. “We stayed until they pulled her body from the rubble,” she said. Her body was practically intact. “But her head had been crushed by falling stones from the building. That’s what killed her.”
An ambulance took the body to the hospital. The family began the legal process to obtain a burial permit. "We are waiting for the permits. The burial is scheduled for tomorrow," he said.
Mirkhayali recounted that Zeinab had memorized the Quran and was preparing to participate in a recitation contest in Tehran in two months. “I had a big dream for my daughter. She was very hardworking and outstanding, and she had memorized the Book of God. Her participation in the contest was a source of pride for all of us. My dream died with her.”
Iranian state media, citing the Red Crescent, reported on Saturday night that at least 201 people had been killed across the country and more than 700 had been injured.
The scene in Tehran
Several hours after President Donald Trump announced the start of the war in a recorded statement, Iran's National Security Council issued a statement assuring Tehran residents that food supplies were stable, but advising those wishing to leave the capital to do so, while urging them to avoid traffic jams. According to the statement, the council's reasoning was to prevent a repeat of the mass exodus that occurred during the US-Israeli attack on Iran in June, when hundreds of thousands of people fled the capital for Turkey and other Iranian cities, including Gilan, Qom, and Isfahan, and Israeli attacks on those convoys resulted in the deaths of dozens.
By the time the statement was issued, the exodus had already begun. Tehran's main roads and highways were jammed with cars. Families loaded luggage onto roofs or piled it between seats. Horns blared incessantly. Passengers shouted into their phones, trying to locate relatives. Children cried. Women wept uncontrollably. Gas stations descended into chaos with ever-lengthening lines of cars as fuel ran out in minutes at some locations. Shops and small nearby markets ran out of food, water, and medicine as residents bought up everything they could carry, fearing that supplies would be cut off or that further attacks would occur in the coming hours.
University students from outside Tehran, those who study in the capital but come from other provinces, joined the exodus. Some ran to catch the bus. Others drove themselves, stuffing their laptops and notebooks into bags, along with whatever personal belongings they could grab.
Not everyone fled. In Palestine Square, one of Tehran's most politically charged public spaces, dozens of Iranians gathered to protest the bombings. They waved Iranian flags and portraits of Supreme Leader Khamenei and former commander Qassem Soleimani. They burned photographs of Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mahmoud Aslan He is an Iranian journalist based in Tehran.
This article is published in collaboration with Dropsitenews
