MINAB — A missile struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh school and an adjacent Revolutionary Guard compound in Minab, Iran, on Feb. 28, killing dozens of children. Amnesty International concluded that a U.S. military guided weapon directly hit the school building, killing 168 people, including over 100 children, according to the organization's analysis.

The missile strike killed Soheil and dozens of other children at the school. Soheil died two days before his eighth birthday. Amnesty International said the attack was a "serious breach of international humanitarian law." The organization based its conclusions on analysis of video and satellite imagery and interviews with three people outside Iran with knowledge of the Minab situation.

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International's senior director of research, advocacy, policy and campaigns, said, "This harrowing attack on a school, with classrooms full of children, is a sickening illustration of the catastrophic and entirely predictable price civilians are paying during this armed conflict. Schools must be places of safety and learning for children." Guevara-Rosas said, "Instead, this school in Minab became a site of mass killing. The US authorities could, and should, have known it was a school building."

Jafar Qasemi, one of the first responders to the strike, helped retrieve the bodies of schoolchildren. Qasemi said, "Most of them were children. No one spoke at first. It was like being in a silent film." He opened a child's bag that was covered in blood and saw that the child had not had the chance to eat their snack that day. Qasemi said, "For me, time was moving very slowly."

Qasemi said, "I still haven't been able to come to terms with it. I can still smell blood and gunpowder, and the images of that day pass by me constantly." Qasemi said, "My feeling is a mix of anger about this attack and a strong determination to defend ourselves. This war is a test of honor and the defense of human dignity. Every drop of blood spilled in this path will make the spirit of resistance stronger."

Videos from the scene show the aftermath of the strike. One video shows black smoke streaming from a building with a blue wall painted with flowers and the sound of a woman screaming. Another video shows men digging through rubble where an arm is protruding. A separate video shows women wearing black chador sitting next to a pile of colorful backpacks. In one video, a person unzips a body bag to reveal the body of a child with a head injury wearing a green plaid shirt. Bodies of children wearing the school uniform can be seen in other body bags in the video.

Zahra Monazzah, whose son Soheil died in the strike, said, "The blood of our young people has always been shed by America, so this was not unexpected." Monazzah said, "Trump should not think that killing our children has made us despair." Monazzah said, "He should cry for himself, because he will end up in hell."