Has the US committed war crimes in Iran? Here’s what the UN fact-finding mission | Today’s news
The United Nations (UN) fact-finding mission in Iran said it had reasonable grounds to believe that the United States was behind two military strikes on a school and sports facility in Iran in February, Reuters reported.
The cases amounted to war crimes, the September 17 report said. The report also found that Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during their deadly crackdown on anti-government protests.
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Findings in a new report by the Independent International Investigation Mission on Iran examined U.S. conduct during the Iran war that began in February and the Iranian government’s response to the nationwide unrest that began in late December. The findings will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Reuters reported that the Pentagon declined to comment on the report prepared by an outside organization. “Our investigation is ongoing and we have nothing to report at this time,” the Pentagon said in a statement, according to an agency report.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly was quoted in a Reuters report as saying the UN Human Rights Council had “accomplished nothing for human rights”, adding that Iran is the only party in the current conflict that has committed war crimes.
Iran’s permanent mission in Geneva did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
US officials have previously said military operations are conducted in accordance with the law of armed conflict, while Iran has consistently denied allegations of systematic rights abuses.
UN investigative missions are investigative, not judicial, bodies and therefore do not initiate any criminal proceedings. However, their findings may be used in criminal investigations by national courts or international tribunals such as the International Criminal Court.
School strike in Minab
UN experts said they found reasonable grounds to believe US forces were responsible for the attack on Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in the city of Minab, which killed more than 150 people, including about 120 schoolchildren, according to Iranian officials.
The attack occurred on February 28, 2026, when a missile struck a school in Minab, Hormozgan province, southern Iran, during the US-Iran war. Evidence and satellite analysis later cited by international media indicated that the school was hit near a neighboring Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) compound, although the school itself was clearly identifiable and separated by a wall.
The attack constituted an indiscriminate attack that caused civilian deaths and damage to civilian infrastructure, amounting to a war crime under international law, the mission concluded, according to a Reuters report.
According to the report, the United States’ failure to update information regarding the school, which adjoined an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval complex, in its targeting databases and confirm that the building was a military target was more than mere negligence.
“Rather, the U.S. directed strikes at a school building, knowing there was a significant risk of hitting a civilian object and acting with reckless disregard for the possibility of that happening.”
The Pentagon is investigating the Minab school attack
In June, US President Donald Trump said “no one” purposefully attacked a girls’ school in Iran in February, citing an investigation into the incident. The Pentagon has since upgraded the probe but has not released any preliminary findings.
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UN experts said the school was a clearly identifiable civilian facility and found no evidence that it had been used for military purposes.
A similar conclusion was reached by experts during the strike at the sports center in Lamerdo. The report said the attack damaged nearby residential buildings and a school and killed and wounded 22 civilians. He concluded that the strike was indiscriminate and therefore constituted a war crime.
US Central Command said in a statement in March that US forces did not launch any strikes on the town of Lamerd that day.
Iran’s systematic attack against civilians
The UN mission’s investigation found that Iranian authorities carried out a large-scale and systematic attack against civilians during the protests that broke out in late December last year, including unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and severe restrictions on freedom of expression.
Human rights groups say bystanders were among those killed in the biggest crackdown since Shiite Muslim clerics seized power in a 1979 revolution. Tehran has blamed “terrorists and rioters” backed by exiled opponents and foreign enemies the US and Israel.
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The probe said it could not independently verify the death toll, but believed the number of dead and injured was likely to be much higher than the official figure, which said 3,038 people were killed and 25,000 injured.
The US directed the strikes at the school building, aware of the significant risk of hitting a civilian object.
The government’s response to the protests — including violence and killings, internet shutdowns and the use of the death penalty — marked a significant escalation from previous patterns of suppressing dissent, the report said.
