WASHINGTON — More than 120 Democratic members of Congress are asking the Pentagon for detailed information about how the U.S. military is limiting civilian casualties in Iran and what role artificial intelligence is playing in choosing targets.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that was sent Thursday morning and obtained by NBC News, the members singled out a strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Iran that killed more than 170 people, most of them children. The strike was in Minab, Iran, in the early hours Feb. 28 as the U.S. and Israel were launching their war on Iran.
The U.S. military has said it is still investigating the strike, but preliminary information shows that not only was a U.S. munition likely responsible for the attack, but also that outdated intelligence may have been to blame for selecting the target, NBC News has reported, citing four sources familiar with the preliminary findings.
In their letter, the lawmakers ask Hegseth why the target was selected and whether the Pentagon will investigate it as a possible war crime.
They also ask what role AI has played in the selection of targets, as well as in assessing intelligence that has informed target selection, and in making legal determinations during the ongoing military operation.
“If artificial intelligence is used, is it subject to human review and at what point? Was artificial intelligence, including the use of Maven Smart System, used to identify the Shajareh Tayyebeh school as a target? If so, did a human verify the accuracy of this target?” they ask in the letter.
The lawmakers called on the Pentagon to provide answers to their questions no later than March 20.
Asked for comment on the letter, a Pentagon official said in a statement, "The incident is under investigation," referring to the strike on the school in Iran. "As with all congressional correspondence, the department will respond directly to the authors," the official added.
“We should all feel deeply ashamed by the killing of 175 civilians, mostly little children, who have nothing to do with this awful, reckless war,” one of the lawmakers who signed the letter, Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., said in a statement. “If the United States is indeed responsible for this attack, then this Administration needs to immediately take responsibility, be held accountable, and make amends to the survivors and loved ones of the victims. Instead, President Trump is denying any U.S. involvement in this strike and blaming Iran without any evidence and before the investigation is even complete. I will keep pushing for answers and accountability — not just for this strike, but for the broader pattern of civilian harm from U.S. and Israeli strikes in Iran.”
Trump has said, without evidence, that Iran may be responsible for the attack — a position that is at odds with the preliminary findings of the U.S. military’s investigation.
Asked if the U.S. struck the school in Iran, Trump told reporters on Saturday: “No, in my opinion, and based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran.”
Hegseth was with Trump as he spoke with reporters, and when asked if it was true that Iran struck the school, he said, “We’re certainly investigating,” adding that “the only side that targets civilians is Iran.”
The law of armed conflict dictates that the U.S. must distinguish between civilians and combatants and take all possible measures to protect civilians. But just several days into the war, Hegseth said there would be “no stupid rules of engagement” for Operation Epic Fury, the current U.S. military operation in Iran.
Rules of engagement define how the military can and should operate in a conflict in line with the law of armed conflict. They often define who and what can be targeted in a specific conflict.
In a video released Wednesday morning, the commander of U.S. Central Command acknowledged the U.S. is using AI in the war in Iran.
“Our war fighters are leveraging a variety of advanced AI tools. These systems help us sift through vast amounts of data in seconds so our leaders can cut through the noise and make smarter decisions faster than the enemy can react,” Adm. Brad Cooper said in the video produced by CENTCOM and released on social media.
“Humans will always make final decisions on what to shoot and what not to shoot and when to shoot, but advanced AI tools can turn processes that used to take hours and sometimes even days into seconds,” he said.
On Tuesday, Hegseth accused Iran of using civilian areas to carry out military operations.
“They fire missiles from schools and hospitals deliberately, deliberately targeting innocents because they know their military is being systematically degraded and annihilated,” Hegseth said at a briefing at the Pentagon. He did not provide evidence to support the claim.
On Sunday, CENTCOM released a safety warning to Iranian civilians, saying that the Iranian regime is using heavily populated civilian areas to conduct military operations, including launching drones and ballistic missiles. CENTCOM urged civilians to stay inside because as the regime moves equipment like mobile launchers into civilian areas, that equipment could become a legitimate military target under international law.
“They’re not our target,” a U.S. official said of civilians, adding that Iran’s security apparatus continues to be the U.S. military’s target. “We will do everything we can to mitigate harm to civilians, but we cannot guarantee it.”
