Iran Denounces U.S. Attack on Teen Sports Hall

(MENAFN) Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei issued a fierce condemnation Thursday of a U.S. strike on a sports hall in southern Fars province that killed 21 teenagers, denouncing the attack as a flagrant violation of international law.

In a post published on social media platform X, Baghaei revealed that the Feb. 28 strike on the city of Lamerd marked the battlefield debut of the U.S. Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), which he said detonated above the packed facility, “dispersing thousands of lethal fragments (tungsten pellets) to maximize casualties.”

The attack occurred on the same day Israel and the United States unleashed coordinated joint strikes on Tehran and a string of other Iranian cities — an offensive that killed then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, along with senior military commanders and civilian bystanders. Iran subsequently launched successive waves of missile and drone retaliatory strikes against Israel and U.S. military assets across the Middle East.

In a separate appearance on Pan-African television news channel Newzroom Afrika on Wednesday, Baghaei characterized the broader U.S.-Israeli campaign as “an act of aggression and an illegal war.”

The spokesman further alleged that Washington had twice “torpedoed” bilateral diplomatic negotiations within the span of nine months — once in June 2025 and again in late February of this year — effectively dismantling back-channel efforts to avert open conflict.

Baghaei delivered a stark warning, declaring that Tehran would not accept a recurring “vicious cycle of war, negotiations and ceasefire,” vowing that Iran would sustain its military response for as long as what it calls the “illegal” war persists.

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