168 Days, 168 Children: Iran Demands Accountability for School Strike

Iran’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Gholamreza Raja, has called for truth and accountability over the deaths of 168 children in a reported missile strike on Shajareh Teybeh School in Minab.

In an opinion article published by The PUNCH, Raja said 168 days of war had coincided with the reported deaths of 168 children, describing the figure as a painful reminder of the human cost of the conflict.

He alleged that the school was struck by US missiles and said investigations and assessments had pointed to US forces as responsible. However, he acknowledged that the United States had not formally accepted responsibility for the attack.

Raja questioned who authorised the strike, what intelligence was used to identify the target and how a school became the site of a military attack.

He stressed that civilian lives should not be valued differently based on nationality, arguing that the deaths of Iranian children deserved the same concern as those of children elsewhere in the world.

According to the ambassador, schools should remain places of learning, safety and hope rather than becoming targets during armed conflicts.

He also warned against the normalisation of civilian suffering, saying casualty figures can make it easy for individual victims and their families to disappear from public attention.

Raja said remembering the victims was not intended to promote hatred but to demand truth, accountability and justice while preventing similar tragedies in the future.

He concluded that the 168 children should be remembered not merely as a casualty figure but as individuals with names, families, dreams and futures that were lost.

The ambassador's article comes amid continuing debate over civilian casualties and accountability in the conflict involving Iran and the United States.

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