AURN News with Ebony McMorris

Senate Democrats Press Pentagon After Reports of Deadly School Strike in Iran

Ebony McMorris
March 11, 2026

Reading Time: < 1 minute

(AURN News) — Nearly every Senate Democrat is demanding answers from the Pentagon after reports that a girls’ elementary school in Minab, Iran, was struck during the opening wave of joint U.S.-Israeli strikes targeting the country.

In a letter sent Wednesday to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, 47 Democratic senators said at least 168 people were killed, most of them girls between the ages of 7 and 12. The lawmakers asked whether U.S. forces were responsible, what intelligence was used and who authorized the strike.

This picture released by the Iranian government foreign media department, and distributed by the AP without changes, shows a child after being pulled from rubble said to be from an airstrike on a girls’ elementary school in Minab, Iran, Saturday, Feb.28, 2026.(Iranian Foreign Media Department via AP)

The senators also pointed to a growing civilian death toll across Iran. The letter cites more than 1,245 civilians killed and more than 12,000 injured as of March 10, based on figures from the Human Rights Activists News Agency.

The senators also raised concerns about reports that artificial intelligence tools may have been used to help identify targets. They gave the Pentagon until March 18 to respond.

Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @E_N_McMorris & @aurnonline.

White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris is a native Washingtonian and University of South Carolina alumna. Her passion is mentoring young adults by teaching community empowerment and media education. She is an NAB member and board member of the Thurgood Marshall Center and was presented the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award for contributing more than 4,000 hours of community service under the Obama Administration.