In war, first reports are often confused and contradictory. On February 28th, early in the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran, an elementary school in the town of Minab was hit by a devastating strike. At least 175 people were killed — many of them children — making it the deadliest single incident of the conflict so far.

At first, no one claimed responsibility. The White House said it was investigating. President Donald Trump suggested Iran itself might have been to blame. But thousands of miles away, a team of journalists began piecing together the truth.

Using satellite images, online videos, missile analysis, and old military imagery, reporters from The New York Times reconstructed what happened that morning. Their investigation pointed to a chilling conclusion: a precision American Tomahawk cruise missile struck the school while US forces attacked a nearby naval base.

One of those was Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Malachy Browne, working from Limerick as part of the Times’ Visual Investigations unit. On today’s Newstalk Daily, Malachy explains to Ciara Doherty how open-source evidence allowed reporters to locate the exact building that was hit, identify the weapon used, and challenge official claims about one of the most controversial strikes of the war.