Experts dispute US account of deadly Iran sports hall strike in Lamerd

Experts dispute US account of deadly Iran sports hall strike in Lamerd21 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleMerlyn Thomas,BBC Verify correspondent ,Shayan Sardarizadeh,Senior Journalist, BBC VerifyandSarah JalaliBBCMultiple weapons experts have disputed a US claim that Iran may have been responsible for a deadly strike on the town of Lamerd on the first day of the war.Six experts - who examined footage of the strike and all commented independently - contested the US claim that it was an Iranian missile, citing the missile's visual features, the way it exploded, its trajectory and the number of strikes in the area as the basis for their analysis.Iranian officials have said 21 people, including four children, were killed.BBC Verify originally reported on the strikes on 28 March, citing experts who said it was likely a US Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) was used. The US Central Command (Centcom) - which oversees US military operations in the Middle East - declined to comment for that report.Centcom then released a statement on 31 March denying it was a US missile, instead saying that footage of the attack was consistent with an Iranian Hoveyzeh cruise missile."US forces do not target civilians, unlike the Iranian regime which has attacked civilian locations in neighboring countries more than 300 times," the statement added.When BBC Verify went back to Centcom with the experts' analysis, it said it had "nothing to add" to its original statement.CCTV footage shows moment of strike on residential buildings in LamerdLamerd, a town in southern Iran, came under attack on 28 February. CCTV footage published by Iranian state media - which was authenticated and geolocated by BBC Verify - showed a munition moments before it exploded above a residential area. Experts identified it as likely being a US missile, based on its appearance, the size of the blast and the distance from potential US launch sites in the Middle East.In BBC Verify...