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Top U.S. Commander Dismisses Reports of Civilian Deaths in Iran
Adm. Brad Cooper on Thursday dismissed reports of the U.S.’s role in civilian deaths in Iran. The commander said the U.S. military identified one potential incident involving a school, which Iranian officials said killed 175 people, most of them children. The New York Times has verified that 22 schools and 17 health care facilities were damaged in the war.
“The subject of civilian casualties is a particular passion of mine. We pay attention to it. We follow all the procedures and have gone above and beyond to — in my case, personally warn the Iranian people of several instances —” “How many schools have we bombed?” “There is one active civilian casualty investigation from the 13,629 munitions.” “So how do you explain the publicly available information that 22 schools have been hit and multiple hospitals?” “There’s no way that we can corroborate that. No indication of that whatsoever, Senator.” “Well, the indication is what’s publicly available. There is indication. Have you investigated those claims?” “We have not.” “Why have you not? If this is a passion of yours, if you believe that civilian casualties are not consistent with the law of war and not consistent with human rights obligations that our military regularly follows with great pride and great diligence, why have you not investigated those allegations when they’re publicly being made on the cover of The New York Times?” “I’ll be happy to take a look at each instance.” “I would like a report.” “If you were to find out that there was an error in the targeting process, would you reinstate some of those people that were removed from that team?” “Sir, it’s a hypothetical. I think we — I’m always looking to organize to purpose, and we’ll just see what the investigation —” “Are you taking any additional steps now because of the civilian casualties to date?” “We have taken additional steps. Our additional steps have been very proactive.”
Adm. Brad Cooper on Thursday dismissed reports of the U.S.’s role in civilian deaths in Iran. The commander said the U.S. military identified one potential incident involving a school, which Iranian officials said killed 175 people, most of them children. The New York Times has verified that 22 schools and 17 health care facilities were damaged in the war.
By Jorge Mitssunaga and Arash Khamooshi
May 14, 2026
