Iran school strike families mourn 155 killed

Families of children killed in a strike on Shajareh Tayebeh school in Minab, southern Iran, are still grieving six months after the attack, which killed at least 155 people, most of them children.

AFP journalists obtained rare access to the school, where collapsed walls and twisted steel remain surrounded by portraits of the children killed. Iranian flags now fly above the rubble.

Masoumeh Zakeri said her nine-year-old daughter Motahreh had gone to school by bus before the attacks on Iran began. Zakeri said she received a call telling her to collect her daughter but arrived after the school had been struck. She said Motahreh was later identified by her earrings and bracelet.

Yaghoub Yazdanpanah, a Persian literature teacher, said his six-year-old daughter Fatemeh was also killed. Another father, painter Javad Shahrjou, said his seven-year-old son Alireza was recovered three days later.

Iran says the attack on the school involved two US Tomahawk missiles. Neither the United States nor Israel has officially claimed responsibility for the strike. Amnesty International blamed the United States, while The New York Times reported that the school was hit by a US Tomahawk cruise missile.

Authorities say the school will be preserved as a memorial. Searches have continued for the bodies of three missing children.

Since an April ceasefire, intense bombardments have largely stopped, but diplomatic efforts to end the war have stalled.