IRANIAN football fans have staged a protest against US strikes on the country which have killed hundreds of civilians.
During Iran's 2-2 draw with New Zealand supporters could be seen unfurling banners reading "Minab 168," in reference to an airstrike on a school in the Iranian region of Minab which killed 168 people, including around 110 children.
Elsewhere fans displayed pictures of children killed in the attack, which according to various expert reports was likely a targeted missile strike by the US Air Force, including nine year old Mikaeil Mirdoraghi who's picture was shared widely in the aftermath of the strike.
MINAB 168 pic.twitter.com/PHjCvw5YIL
— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) June 16, 2026
According to analysis by the New York Times, the school appears to have been targeted as part of US strikes on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which had a naval base in an neighbouring but separate building.
The analysis identified at least six buildings used by the IRGC which were hit during the attack, along with the school, indicating the strike was deliberate.
Wes Bryant, a national security analyst who served in the US Air Force and was a senior adviser on civilian harm at the Pentagon, told The NYT that it appeared the school had been hit with “picture perfect” target strikes.
Bryant said the most likely explanation was that the school had been a “target misidentification," explaining that forces had attacked the site without realizing that it might have had large numbers of civilians inside.
“Given the U.S.’s intelligence capabilities, they should have known that a school was in the vicinity,” said Beth Van Schaack, a former State Department official who teaches at Stanford University’s Center for Human Rights and International Justice.
Janina Dill, an expert on international law at Oxford University, wrote on Twitter/X that even if the strike was a misidentification – and the attacker believed that the school had been a part of the neighbouring IRGC base – it would still be “a very serious violation of international law”.
“Attackers are under an obligation to do everything feasible to verify the status of targeted object,” she wrote.
Iran's treatment during the World Cup campaign has been described as being a "disaster", with the team having to stay in Mexico despite all of their group stage games taking place in the United States.
Someone took a HUGE Image of Mikaeil Mirdoraghi, one of the children who was killed in the Minab School, to honor him. pic.twitter.com/ZJaWA6Jvsq
— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinkle) June 16, 2026
Due to sanctions the Iran team had to relocate their base camp from Arizona to Tijuana in Mexico despite all their group stage games being in the US, with players and staff having to fly on matchdays.
The team has also faced visa problems and their ticket allocation for the World Cup was reportedly pulled just days before the tournament got underway.
Despite the obstacles they opened their World Cup campaign with a 2-2 draw against New Zealand, roared on by a passionate Iranian-American crowd.
Official investigations into the air strike are ongoing.
