Why we targeted US base in UAE – Iran Guards

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Friday they had targeted a US base in the UAE that they alleged had been used as a launchpad for a strike on a school.

According to Iranian authorities, a strike had hit a girls’ elementary school on Saturday in Minab county in the south of the country, killing more than 150 people including students.

AFP has neither been able to access the site in order to verify the incident, or to obtain independent confirmation of a toll.

“Al-Dhafra air base, belonging to American terrorists in the region, was targeted using drones and precision missiles,” the Guards said in a statement broadcast on state TV.

Neither Israel nor the United States has claimed responsibility for the reported attack, which was close to sites controlled by Revolutionary Guards.

The Pentagon has confirmed it is investigating, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US would “not deliberately target a school.”

An investigation by The New York Times newspaper concluded Thursday that the US military was the “most likely to have carried out the strike”.

An analysis of social media posts from the time of the attack, as well as photos and videos from witnesses, indicated that the school had been struck at the same time as a nearby Guards’ naval base sites, the Times said.

AFP