Podcast Summary: "The families torn apart by the Minab school bombing"

Today in Focus, The Guardian
Date: April 3, 2026
Host: Nosheen Iqbal | Guest: Tess McClure, Rights and Freedom Editor

Episode Overview

This haunting episode of Today in Focus investigates the Minab primary school bombing in southern Iran, a tragedy that killed over 160 people, most of them children. Host Nosheen Iqbal is joined by journalist Tess McClure, who interviewed affected families and pieced together what happened that day. The episode combines heartbreaking personal testimonies, on-the-ground reporting, and analysis of the evidence, raising urgent questions about accountability, misinformation, and the true cost of war.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Minab’s Families before the Bombing

[00:45 - 03:10]

• Background: The bombing occurred on a Friday in Ramadan, a day of family gatherings and anticipation.
• Focus on Two Families: Listeners meet Zara, an 8-year-old with a creative spirit, and siblings Sobhan (10) and Hania (7), energetic children cherished by their parents.
  • Memorable detail: Zara’s parents could always tell she was crafting when they smelled glue in the house.
  • Sobhan overcame early developmental challenges with the dedication of his mother, Matsia, finally thriving in primary school with his sister.
  • “To have him at primary school with his wee sister and doing well was a huge achievement for their family.” (Tess McClure, 02:26)
• The next day began like any other: school preparations, laughter, and sibling camaraderie.

2. The Attack Unfolds: Chaos and Loss

[03:42 - 14:47]

• Reconstruction of Events:
  • Families recount their last normal moments: preparing for iftar, searching for homework supplies, children heading to school amid daily routines.
  • The bombing struck during school hours. Parents frantically tried to reach the school after unexplained calls to collect their children.
  • “Just sees this huge pile of rubble … and he’s just digging with his hands, pulling at the rubble, trying to find a person underneath.” (Tess McClure, 09:15)
• Personal Testimonies of Grief:
  • Fathers arrived to devastation: “He calls his wife. He doesn’t want her to lose hope. He tells her to pray.” (Tess McClure, 09:59)
  • Some children survived the initial blast but died while attempting to rescue siblings.
  • “He finds Hania there as well. Her head has been fractured, but she’s still mostly intact.” (Tess McClure, 12:05)
• Echoing Impact:
  • “For that community, the loss of 130 plus girls and about 30 teachers is just an incredible loss for those families … all of their lives forever transformed.” (Tess McClure, 15:52)

3. The Aftermath: Evidence, Verification, and Disinformation

[16:43 - 22:16]

• Verifying the Bombing:
  • Journalists used satellite imagery, video analysis, and site photos to confirm both the destruction and its scale.
  • Certain details—murals, football fields, the separation of the school from military buildings—affirmed that it functioned solely as a school for years.
  • “There are photographs and videos of very small children’s limbs being dug out of the rubble … those kinds of things.” (Tess McClure, 18:41)
• Disinformation and Social Media Battles:
  • Viral images, like aerial shots of mass graves, were instantly accused of being AI-generated. McClure highlighted the double-edged difficulty of debunking fake material and defending real evidence.
  • “We have a very confronting piece of evidence of this war crime that people are being told or are choosing to believe is fake.” (Tess McClure, 21:10)
  • “Misinformation that’s spreading is only growing … It’s becoming extremely difficult for people to know how to discern.” (Tess McClure, 22:06)

4. Responsibility: Who Bombed the School?

[23:30 - 27:32]

• Investigative Process:
  • Early suspicion surrounding the proximity to an IRGC facility.
  • Satellite images and munitions expertise identified Tomahawk missile debris at the site, weapons used exclusively by the US in this conflict.
  • “Munitions experts have identified that missile as a Tomahawk, which in this conflict is only used by the US… they are consistent with a Tomahawk missile, with the weapons companies that the US military works with, and with the labeling and barcoding that the US military used.” (Tess McClure, 24:03–24:55)
  • US internal briefings later supported the likelihood that the school was struck by a US bomb.
• Weapons Capabilities & Likelihood of Error:
  • Tomahawk missiles are extremely accurate (within 5-10 meters), making a stray strike unlikely.
  • For a school with visible signage and playgrounds to be hit suggests an "egregious intelligence failure" rather than a hardware malfunction.
  • “If for whatever reason those indicators that this was a school building were not picked up … that points to an egregious intelligence failure.” (Tess McClure, 26:43)

5. International and Political Response

[27:24 - 28:30]

• The US government publicly denied responsibility, with President Trump quickly blaming Iran, claims unsupported by military spokespeople.
  • “Trump came out very quickly and said … that it looked like they had bombed their own school.” (Tess McClure, 27:32)
  • “The US military has said only that they are investigating the incident.” (Tess McClure, 28:01)
• Potential War Crime:
  • “It is certainly a war crime to deliberately target a school or an educational facility like this. Absolutely. And even if it’s not deliberate, under international law, countries also have a duty to take due care … that is also a very serious breach of international law.” (Tess McClure, 28:30)

6. Reflections: The Human Cost amid War

[29:13 - 30:37]

• McClure underlines the disconnect between policy discussions and “the reality of what it is like when an enormous explosive is dropped on your child.”
  • “What these parents’ stories bring home … is actually presenting the reality of what it is like when an enormous explosive is dropped on your child. It’s just an absolute nightmare.” (Tess McClure, 30:01)
• The episode closes on a reminder to hold onto the human element beyond geopolitics and markets.

Notable Quotes and Moments

• On the everyday lives upended:
  • “There’s just this incredible ordinariness of family life up until that moment … that has transformed all of their lives forever.” (Tess McClure, 15:52)
• On disinformation:
  • “We’re seeing real photographs and real evidence dismissed as AI … The misinformation that’s spreading is only growing.” (Tess McClure, 21:10–22:06)
• On accountability:
  • “If you are careless and you don’t take the steps that you should to verify that a target is military, that is also a very serious breach of international law.” (Tess McClure, 28:30)
• On the reality of war:
  • “To lose sight of what physically happens to people when you drop a bomb like this … is to make an absolute nightmare invisible.” (Tess McClure, 30:01)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introducing the families and their lives: 00:45 – 03:10
• The day of the bombing, parent testimonies: 04:04 – 14:47
• Initial evidence and shock to the community: 15:52 – 18:41
• Social media misinformation: 20:24 – 22:16
• Who was responsible? 23:30 – 27:32
• Legal and moral accountability: 28:21 – 29:13
• Reflections on human impact: 29:40 – 30:37

Closing

This episode is a harrowing look at the cost of war on innocent lives, tracing the impact of the Minab school bombing through the voices of grieving parents and rigorous on-the-ground journalism. It confronts not just who dropped the bomb, but also how narratives are shaped—and often distorted—by politics and digital misinformation.

For more on this reporting, follow Tess McClure and The Guardian’s Rights and Freedom series.