An Iranian school and several nearby homes were reportedly hit in a fresh US missile strike on Tuesday, Iran’s state-affiliated Mehr news agency said, in a claim that, if confirmed, would intensify pressure for an international investigation into earlier attacks on schools during the widening conflict.
Mehr said the strike targeted Dr Hafez Khomeni School in Khomeyn, a city in Markazi province in central Iran. Several residential properties in the surrounding area were also said to have been damaged.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The report could not immediately be independently verified, and there was no immediate public confirmation from Washington. It was also not clear whether the school was close to any military site or whether the strike formed part of the wider US-Israeli campaign launched against Iran on 28 February.
The latest allegation comes as scrutiny grows over a missile strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ primary school in Minab, in southern Iran, on 28 February. Iranian officials said about 170 students and staff were killed, while Human Rights Watch said at least 168 people died.
Human Rights Watch said last week that the Minab strike should be investigated as a possible war crime. UN experts cited by Sky News described that attack as “a grave assault on children, on education, and on the future of an entire community”.
Sky News reported on 9 March that new video evidence and the pattern of destruction at Minab were consistent with a US Tomahawk cruise missile. US officials have said the incident remains under investigation.
According to Sky News, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the Minab strike was still being examined and said “the only side that targets civilians is Iran”. Earlier Pentagon statements said officials were not initially aware that a school had been hit.
The Minab school was located beside an IRGC-linked facility, according to geolocation work cited by international outlets including BBC Persian and Al Jazeera. Analysts said that raised questions over whether the school was struck because of faulty or outdated intelligence, while rights groups have warned that the scale of civilian deaths requires an independent inquiry regardless of the intended target.
Tuesday’s report from Khomeyn is likely to deepen concerns about a possible pattern of damage to educational sites. Monitoring groups and regional observers have alleged that multiple education facilities have been hit since the first wave of strikes, although not every reported incident has been independently confirmed.
The broader US-Israeli campaign has focused on Iranian missile, nuclear and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sites, according to public reporting and military analysts. Iran has responded with missile and drone attacks across the Gulf, raising fears of a wider regional war.
In Britain, Sir Keir Starmer’s government has said the UK is not taking part in offensive strikes on Iran, though ministers have left open limited co-operation with the United States for specific defensive purposes. The position has prompted questions over whether British facilities could play any indirect role in operations that result in civilian casualties.
Britain’s embassy in Tehran was closed earlier this year amid security concerns.
The National Education Union has condemned the attacks on schools, saying: “No political objective can justify the killing of children.” The union has called on the government to press for de-escalation.
As of Tuesday evening, there had been no independent assessment of the damage at Dr Hafez Khomeni School, no confirmed casualty toll from Khomeyn and no immediate official US response to Mehr’s report.