TEHRAN - “Glasses with a strap so they don’t get lost; a water bottle with a picture of a hedgehog; a third-grade student, undoubtedly raised with great love, waving goodbye to his mother as he leaves home, just before his short life is ended by a bombing campaign led by Trump and Netanyahu. This is a photo that breaks my heart every time I see it.”

These are the words a Japanese social media user posted below a picture of “Mikaeil Mirdoraghi,” who was martyred by a U.S. missile attack to an elementary school in Minab, southern Iran, on February 28.

He was 9 years old. His mother says that final night felt different. “Mom, the food you made tastes like heaven,” Mikaeil told his mother the night before he was innocently killed on the first day of the U.S.-Israeli aggression. 

After dinner, Mikaeil sat with his brother, surrounded himself with pillows, and started a game. “I’m Iran and you’re America,” he told his brother. 

As they played with their imaginary tanks and guns, he made sure to announce the outcome: “See? Iran won. I was Iran and I won.” He spent the rest of his last evening reading the Quran and praying. In the morning, before heading out, he turned to his mother and asked her for one thing: “Mom, take a picture of me.”

He used to tell people, “My name is Mikaeil. Mikaeil means God’s angel. If you have a wish, tell me so I can fulfill it.” A few hours after this photo was taken, a U.S. missile struck Shajareh Tayyebeh School. 

It was a primary school where boys and girls were educated together. Up to 175 people were killed, the vast majority of them little girls between the ages of seven and twelve. There was nothing suspicious at the school. There were no targets. There were only children like Mikaeil.

The U.S. launched a missile at a building full of children and then blamed the victims. They left a mother with a plate of food that "tasted like heaven".