Tears and coffins in Minab: Iran mourns school strike victims

March 5 2026

Thousands of mourners packed the streets of Minab in southern Iran on Tuesday as funerals were held for at least 165 schoolchildren and staff members killed in a devastating strike on a primary school that has become one of the deadliest civilian incidents in the ongoing conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran.

The victims, many of them young girls from the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school, were remembered in an emotional mass burial ceremony just days after the building was hit during a wave of air strikes that began across the country. Iranian officials and state media reported that more than 160 students and teachers lost their lives, with hundreds more wounded figures that have not been independently verified.

Grieving parents, classmates and community members carried small coffins draped with Iran’s flag through the city’s main square, clutching photographs of the deceased and weeping openly. Large crowds prayed and chanted as rows of fresh graves were prepared amid cries of “innocents killed.”

Iranian authorities have sharply blamed the United States and Israel for the strike, accusing them of targeting an educational institution and describing the killings as a gross violation of humanitarian law. The U.S. military has acknowledged reports of civilian harm and said it is investigating the incident, while Israel’s armed forces have denied carrying out operations in the area on the day of the attack.

The funeral comes as international concern has mounted, with the United Nations human rights office urging a thorough, impartial investigation into the circumstances surrounding the school strike. UN officials highlighted the broader need to protect children and civilian infrastructure in armed conflict.

In Minab, meanwhile, the focus remains on the personal toll of the tragedy rows of coffins and grieving families reflecting a community struggling to come to terms with loss on an unimaginable scale.