Senate Democrats accused Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth of ignoring the risk to civilians in combat operations and demanded he disclose whether the United States was responsible for a deadly attack on an elementary school in Iran.
A majority of Senate Democrats sent a letter to Mr. Hegseth on Wednesday calling for a “swift investigation” of an attack on a naval base and elementary school in southern Iran on Feb. 28. The school was mostly destroyed by the strike and at least 175 people, most of them children, were killed.
President Trump has claimed without evidence that Iran carried out the strike. But mangled fragments purportedly recovered from the attack in Minab appear to be from an American-made Tomahawk cruise missile, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
The Pentagon has said the attack was under investigation, but has not given a timeline on when the findings would be released.
The strike drew global condemnation, including from the United Nations, which called it a violation of international humanitarian law.
Senate Democrats said they want the Pentagon to inform them by next week whether U.S. forces carried out the strike.
“There must be a swift investigation into the strikes on this school and any other potential U.S. military actions causing civilian harm, and the findings must be released to the public as soon as possible, along with any measures to pursue accountability,” they wrote.
Mr. Hegseth has said that guidelines for the use of deadly force make it more difficult to defeat enemies. Last year, he eliminated offices and positions focused on preventing civilian harm.
Last week, the secretary said at a news conference that the war in Iran would have “no stupid rules of engagement,” and that the U.S. military would rain down “death and destruction from the sky all day long.”
“These actions, combined with your comments and the horrific reports of civilian casualties stemming from the war against Iran, suggest the administration has abandoned its duty to protect civilians,” Democrats wrote to the secretary.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Every senator who caucuses with Democrats except Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania signed onto the letter to Mr. Hegseth. A group of House Democrats is preparing a similar request to the Defense Department for a report to lawmakers on the deadly school strike.
Senators also asked the Pentagon to report back on the current measures in place to prevent and mitigate civilian harm in its operational planning and targeting; the use of artificial intelligence to identify targets inside Iran; the impact of the cuts to personnel tasked with civilian harm mitigation; and the steps the Trump administration has taken to comply with the laws of armed conflict.
No Republicans signed onto the request, and Democrats have no official mechanism to force compliance.
Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, said he could force a vote on a war powers resolution if the Pentagon does not respond to the request. Democrats are already threatening to force votes on a series of such measures if Republicans refuse to call Mr. Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to testify on the escalating war.
“What we’re seeing is a failure to take the precautions necessary to prevent school kids from getting blown up,” Mr. Van Hollen said in an interview. “And that’s the consequence of the attitude that Secretary Hegseth has promoted.”
Several Republicans declined to comment on the reports that the U.S. was responsible for the strike until after the Pentagon concluded its investigation.
Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana was the lone Republican to condemn the attack. “I think we screwed up,” he said in an interview on Tuesday. “I think we made a mistake. It was a terrible, terrible mistake.”
Megan Mineiro is a Times congressional reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for early-career journalists.
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