Iranian Girls’ Elementary School Massacre Was a Double-Tap Strike, Medics Say
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As the US and Israel continued to wage war on Iran Wednesday, paramedics and victims’ relatives said last weekend’s bombing of an elementary in southern Iran was a so-called “double-tap” airstrike — a common tactic used by US, Israeli, and Russian forces by which attackers bomb a target and then follow up with a second strike meant to kill survivors and first responders.
Iranian officials said that around 175 people — most of them young children — were killed when the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in Minab was hit Saturday by what they said was a US-Israeli attack.
“When the first bomb hit the school, one of the teachers and the principal moved a group of students to the prayer hall to protect them,” said one of two Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) paramedics who spoke to Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity.
“The principal called the parents and told them to come and pick up their children,” the paramedic added. “But the second bomb hit that area as well. Only a small number of those who had taken shelter survived… Some parents recognized their children only because of the gold bracelets they were wearing.”
The father of a girl killed in the second strike on the facility told Middle East Eye that school officials “asked us to come as quickly as possible and take our daughter home.”
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However, when he arrived at the school, “My little girl was completely burned.”
“There was nothing left of her,” he said. “We could only identify her from her school bag, which she was still holding.”
“When I saw her smile after coming home from work, all my pain disappeared,” the father added. “Now I don’t know what to do with this pain. I don’t know how to live with this.”
The mother of a boy slain in the strike told NBC News that the school also called her and told her to quickly come pick up her child.
“By the time we arrived, the entire school had collapsed on top of the children,” she said. “People were pulling out children’s arms and legs. People were pulling out severed heads.”
On Wednesday, Middle East Eye published a partial list containing the names and........
