UN Mission Says US Strikes On Iranian School, Sports Centre May Constitute War Crimes

A UN fact-finding mission has said there are reasonable grounds to believe that US forces were responsible for two military strikes on civilian facilities in Iran in February, concluding that the attacks constituted war crimes.

The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said the strikes on a primary school in Minab and a sports facility in Lamerd were indiscriminate attacks that caused civilian deaths and injuries. The findings are contained in a report to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The mission also found that Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests that began in late December.

Neither the US nor Iranian permanent missions in Geneva immediately responded to Reuters' requests for comment. US officials have previously said American military operations are conducted in accordance with the law of armed conflict, while Iran has rejected allegations of systematic human rights violations.

Minab School Strike

The UN experts said they had reasonable grounds to believe US forces were responsible for an attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab, where more than 150 people were killed, including around 120 schoolchildren, according to Iranian officials.

The mission concluded that the attack was an indiscriminate strike that caused civilian deaths and damaged civilian infrastructure, amounting to a war crime under international law.

According to the report, the US failed to update information about the school in its targeting databases and failed to confirm that the building was a military objective.

The experts said the circumstances went beyond negligence, finding that the strike was directed at the school despite awareness of a substantial risk of hitting a civilian object.

In June, US President Donald Trump said that “nobody” had intentionally attacked a girls’ school in Iran in February, citing an investigation into the incident. Reuters had previously reported that an initial US military investigation indicated that American forces were likely responsible for the fatal strike in Minab.

The Pentagon has since elevated the investigation but has not released preliminary findings.

The UN mission said the school was clearly identifiable as a civilian object and found no evidence that it was being used for military purposes.

Sports Centre Strike In Lamerd

The fact-finding mission reached a similar conclusion regarding a strike on a sports centre in Lamerd.

The report said the attack damaged nearby residential buildings and a school and killed or injured 22 civilians. It concluded that the strike was indiscriminate and therefore constituted a war crime.

US Central Command said in March that US forces had not carried out any strikes in Lamerd on that day.

UN Mission Finds Crimes Against Humanity In Iran

The UN mission also examined the Iranian government's response to nationwide protests that erupted in late December.

It found that Iranian authorities had carried out a widespread and systematic attack against civilians involving unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and severe restrictions on freedom of expression.

Rights groups have said bystanders were among those killed during what was described as the biggest crackdown since Shi'ite Muslim clerics came to power in the 1979 revolution. Tehran has blamed what it calls “terrorists and rioters” backed by exiled opponents and foreign adversaries, including the US and Israel.

The UN mission said it could not independently verify the death toll. Official figures cited in the report put the number of people killed at 3,038 and injured at 25,000, but the mission said the actual number was likely considerably higher.

The report said the government's response — including killings, internet shutdowns and use of the death penalty — represented a significant escalation from previous patterns of suppressing dissent.