Grief-stricken families continue to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives nearly three months on from the devastating U.S. missile strike on an Iranian elementary school which saw over 160 people, mostly children, lose their lives.
The strike on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab in Iran's southern province of Hormozgan occurred on February 28, marking the onset of the U.S. and Israeli's war on Iran.
The incident drew widespread international condemnation and came as the U.S. had been reportedly targeting a nearby Iranian military base.
According to local residents, there were at least two, and by some accounts three missiles which directly struck the school, resulting in the deaths of over 160 individuals, including about 120 schoolchildren.
Students had been engaged in lessons just before chaos erupted. Now, the school has been left in ruin, as a mess of rubble and strewn debris remains behind.
In some of the now empty classrooms, flowers have been lain on the desks in tribute to those who are no longer with us.
Many family members return to the tragic site, still struggling to come to terms with what has happened and the enormous loss they have endured.
"My children's classroom was almost (right) here. It is destroyed and almost nothing remains of their classroom. When I come to this school, I remember the days when they were playing in the school yard, but today, there is no sign of them," said Raheleh Chamanizadeh, the mother of victims Ahmad Reza and Javad.
Another of the mourners is Somayeh Kamani, who lost her son Amir Ali Hassanzadeh and her husband in the attack. She described the horrifying aftermath she encountered on that fateful day in shocking detail.
"At the time of the explosion, I was near the school. The intensity of the explosion was so intense that I couldn't enter the school. A missile had entered the boys' school from the girls' school. The boys' bodies were all disintegrated. I found some of my son's body's limbs, including a hand and an ankle, and two legs and an arm were found from my husband's (body)," she said.
While the school may eventually be rebuilt, residents said they will never forget the tragedy that has darkened their lives forever.
Grief lingers nearly three months on from devastating US strike on Iranian school
