US and Israeli attacks on Iran that began on Saturday have killed at least 787 people, the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) said on Tuesday, as strikes continue to pound targets across the country.
US Central Command said on Monday that it struck over 1,250 targets inside Iran, including Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sites, but the US-Israeli bombing campaign has also taken a huge toll on civilians.
The Human Rights Activist News Agency, or HRANA, a US-based and US-funded NGO that’s very critical of the government, said on Monday that at least 742 civilians, including 175 children, have been killed by the US and Israeli attacks.
The majority of the children were killed in a Saturday strike that hit an elementary school in Minab, southern Iran, a town near the coast of the Persian Gulf. Death tolls vary, but the IRCS said on Monday that at least 165 people were killed in the attack.
Initial reports said all of the dead students were girls ages seven to 12, but photos from a funeral held for the students on Tuesday show that boys were killed as well. Iran’s PressTV reported that the building that was struck housed both a girls’ school and a boys’ school.
PressTV also cited a local official who said that “among the martyrs are also educational staff and parents of the students.” According to Drop Site News, the bodies of 140 people who were killed have been identified, and they include 110 students. All 26 female teachers were killed, along with four parents of students.
CENTCOM has said that it was “looking into” the reports of a massive number of child casualties at the school, which is near an IRGC base that was also struck in the initial wave of airstrikes.
Other major civilian casualty incidents include the bombing of a sports hall on Saturday, which killed at least 18 civilians, and strikes on a popular market square in Tehran, which killed over 20 people.
So far, CENTCOM has confirmed that six US troops have been killed by Iranian counterattacks. According to an Al Jazeera tally, at least 11 Israelis have been killed, and eight people have been killed in Gulf Arab states that are being hit by Iranian drones and missiles.
