Radio National Breakfast Bellingcat founder on verifying footage of deadly strike on girls' school in Iran
Mar 11, 2026
Eliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat and expert in open‑source geolocation, explains how his team traced a four‑second clip to a strike site. He discusses satellite imagery showing multiple craters. He describes visual clues used to identify a Tomahawk missile. He reflects on challenges of independent verification amid limited access and political pressure.
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Open Source Verification Exposed Multiple Impact Site Pattern
- Open-source monitoring of social media and satellite imagery can reveal precise attack patterns quickly.
- Bellingcat used a 4-second video plus satellite images showing multiple craters to link strikes to the girls' school next to the compound.
Past Military Use Created Targeting Ambiguity
- Historical use of a site can create dangerous intelligence blind spots when targets are repurposed.
- The girls' school had formerly been part of the military base, raising the risk the strike relied on outdated or misapplied targeting information.
Visual Signatures Help Identify Munitions
- Weapon identification can rely on distinctive visual features matched across footage and displayed remains.
- Higgins notes the Tomahawk's distinct shape, corroborated by Iranian-released missile remains and multiple independent sources.