The Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) said in a statement on Monday that at least 555 Iranians had been killed since the US and Israel began bombing Iran on Saturday morning.
Heavy US and Israeli strikes have been pounding targets across Iran since then, and President Trump vowed on Monday that the bombing would escalate. “We haven’t even started hitting them hard. The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon,” the president told CNN.
The bombing campaign has taken a huge toll on Iranian civilians, whom Trump warned to stay inside. “But right now, we want everyone staying inside. It’s not safe out there. And it’s about to get even less safe,” he said.
The IRCS said the toll includes 165 students who were killed when a strike hit an elementary school in the southern town of Minda. The students at the school were all girls, ranging in age from 7 to 12, according to local authorities.
When asked about the reports of massive casualties at a girls’ school, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it was “looking into” the reports of civilian harm. According to The New York Times, satellite images show the school is near an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) base, which was also hit during the attack.
The Times report said that satellite images from 2013 show that the school building was part of the base, but images since 2016 show a wall was added and the school was separated from the base, suggesting that old information could have led to the school being bombed.
“These are graves being dug for more than 160 innocent young girls who were killed in the US-Israeli bombing of a primary school. Their bodies were torn to shreds,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X on Monday with a photo of graves being dug.
“This is how ‘rescue’ promised by Mr. Trump looks in reality. From Gaza to Minab, innocents murdered in cold blood,” Araghchi added.
Other civilian sites that were hit include a sports hall in Lamerd, a southern city near the coast of the Persian Gulf. According to a report from Drop Site News, at least 18 civilians were killed in the strike.
CENTCOM said on Monday that its forces struck over 1,250 targets in Iran in the first 48 hours of the war, and said it hit command-and-control centers, ballistic missile sites, Iranian navy ships and submarines, and anti-ship missile sites. At least six US troops have been killed by Iranian counterattacks, and at least 11 Israelis have been killed.
