The images have not left me, of dead and wounded children being carried in the arms of the medics and relatives to the ambulances and hospitals. On February 28, at the start of Operation Epic Fury, cruise missiles struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh school – officially named a girls’ school, in Minab, southern Iran, hitting the building multiple times. Iranian authorities reported that 168 people killed – mostly school children, aged between seven and twelve – along with 26 teachers and four parents. Ninety-five more were wounded. These children had woken up that Tuesday morning, been sent to school by mothers who believed the classroom was the safest place outside their homes, but they were dead before the day was over. UNESCO condemned the strike as a "grave violation of humanitarian law". The attack has been cited as one of the deadliest single civilian casualty incidents in the conflict.