Pentagon Investigators Say Overreliance on Palantir AI Tech Contributed to U.S. Strike That Killed 123 Iranian Children

Back in February, two Tomahawk missiles hit Shajarah Tayyebeh Elementary School in the southern Iranian town of Minab on the opening day of the Iran war. The blasts killed more than 150 people, including at least 123 children.

Earlier reporting already pointed to outdated targeting data and raised questions about whether artificial intelligence had a role in the mix-up. And now, a Bloomberg investigation published Friday fills in more of the story, citing officials involved in an unreleased internal Pentagon review. Those officials said some Pentagon personnel knew within hours that the United States had hit the school, and they described a cascade of preventable failures that included an overreliance on an AI tool built by Palantir.