Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command, refused to take responsibility for the U.S. strike on the Minab girls school on the first day of the war against Iran. “I’m always reluctant to put a timetable on [the investigation]. It is coming to the end and I think transparency is important,” Cooper told the House Armed Services Committee yesterday, reported Reuters.
Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the committee, pressed Cooper to publicly acknowledge the likely U.S. responsibility. “It’s really pretty clear what happened there. But 80 days on, we have not taken responsibility for that attack,” he said. Smith noted past examples of errant U.S. strikes and how the Pentagon would accept initial responsibility ahead of the completion of its investigation.
But Cooper suggested the school strike was different. “The school itself is located on an active IRGC cruise missile base. It’s more complex than the average strike,” he claimed.
Reuters cited its own previous reporting that U.S. officials responsible for creating targeting packages appeared to have used out-of-date intelligence.
