A UN fact-finding mission says there are reasonable grounds to believe US strikes on a school in Minab and a sports complex in Lamerd amounted to war crimes, and that Iran committed crimes against humanity in its protest crackdown.
A United Nations fact-finding mission said on Thursday it has reasonable grounds to believe that United States forces committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran in February, including an attack on a primary school that Iranian officials say killed at least 156 people, among them about 120 children.
The findings appear in a new report by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday. The mission also concluded that Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during their crackdown on nationwide anti-government protests.
Strike on Minab school
According to the report, on 28 February — the day the US and Israel launched their war against Iran — Tomahawk missiles struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in the southern town of Minab.
The school sat adjacent to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval complex that was also attacked that day. The mission nonetheless found the school was a clearly identifiable civilian object and that no evidence indicated it was being used for military purposes. Survivors told investigators the school was struck twice, leading the panel to conclude the building was the intended point of impact and that the damage did not result from an errant strike or collateral damage.
"Rather, the U.S. directed the strikes at the building of the school while being aware of a substantial risk of striking a civilian object and acting recklessly as regards the possibility that this would happen," the report states.
The experts cited as evidence media reports indicating that a preliminary US military inquiry found US forces responsible, and the fact that the US is the only party to the conflict that possesses Tomahawk missiles. Reuters reported in March that a preliminary internal US military investigation showed US forces were likely responsible for the strike, after the Pentagon used outdated targeting data.
Strike on Lamerd sports centre
The mission reached a similar conclusion over a strike the same day on a sports complex and residential area in the town of Lamerd. According to the report, Precision Strike Missiles dispersed clouds of tungsten pellets over the site, killing at least 21 civilians, including seven children, and damaging nearby residential buildings and a school.
The panel said the sports complex was clearly identifiable and found no information indicating it was used for military purposes, concluding the strike was indiscriminate and therefore a war crime. It said the US is the only party to the conflict that possesses PrSM missiles.
US Central Command said in March that its forces did not launch any strikes into Lamerd that day.
US response
The Pentagon declined to comment on a report carried out by an outside organization. "Our investigation remains ongoing, and we have nothing to announce at the moment," it said in a statement.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the UN Human Rights Council had "accomplished nothing for human rights," adding that Iran was the only party in the current conflict that had committed war crimes. A State Department official said the US did not give credibility to the findings.
US officials have previously said military operations are conducted in accordance with the law of armed conflict. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the US military would "never target civilian targets." The military has yet to release the results of its investigation into the Minab strike. President Donald Trump said in June that "nobody" purposefully attacked a girls' school in Iran, citing an investigation into the incident.
The Iranian permanent mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Findings on Iran's protest crackdown
The mission also found that Iranian authorities carried out a widespread and systematic attack against civilians during protests that erupted in late December last year, involving unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and severe restrictions on freedom of expression.
Investigators said killings by security forces occurred on "a staggering and unprecedented scale" across all 31 provinces. They said they could not independently verify the death toll but believed the number of dead and injured was likely far higher than official figures, which say 3,038 people were killed and 25,000 injured.
Rights groups say bystanders were among those killed in the biggest crackdown since Shi'ite Muslim clerics took power in the 1979 revolution. Tehran has blamed "terrorists and rioters" backed by exiled opponents and foreign foes the US and Israel, and has consistently rejected allegations of systematic rights violations.
The mission warned that civilians in Iran are "caught between gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by their own government and the nation's deadly conflict with the United States and Israel."
What happens next
UN fact-finding missions are investigative, not judicial bodies, and do not initiate criminal cases. Their findings can be used in criminal investigations by national courts or international tribunals such as the International Criminal Court. States will discuss the report when it is presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.