Minab school strike blamed on staff cuts and oversight lapses, not AI fault

On the opening day of the U.S. war with Iran, a strike hit an elementary school in Minab, killing 156 people, including 120 children. Former Pentagon civilian-harm director Wes Bryant told Straight Arrow that the tragedy stemmed from severe staff reductions in the civilian-protection units, not a malfunction of the Maven AI system used to compile target packages. He said a basic Google search would have identified the building as a school, and that the targeting process was unusually rushed, relying on outdated intelligence without proper civilian mapping.

Palantir’s chief technology officer Shyam Sankar rejected claims that Maven was to blame, calling it merely a tool, while Bryant maintains the error was human misidentification. He compares the incident to the 2015 Kunduz hospital strike but stresses that the Minab attack was preventable given the months of preparation. Ongoing Pentagon investigations have been delayed, with critics accusing the Defense Department of withholding the report, and human-rights groups demanding transparency and reforms.