U.N. experts assert U.S. war crimes in Iran airstrikes
Human rights experts commissioned by the U.N.’s top human rights body say they have found “reasonable grounds” to believe the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran, including on a school in the southern city of Minab, reports BritPanorama.
The international fact-finding mission on Iran indicates the findings focus on a pair of airstrikes that resulted in the deaths of at least 178 civilians, including women and children. At the onset of the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran in February, a U.S. munition likely struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab.
There has been no final accounting of the events, with Iranian state media reporting that 168 individuals were killed in the strike, most of whom were children. According to the mission, “Following the United States and Israeli attacks on 28 February, the mission found reasonable grounds to believe the United States committed the war crime of launching indiscriminate attacks resulting in the loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects.”
The Trump administration has not officially acknowledged its responsibility or released findings from a Pentagon investigation regarding the school bombing. The U.N.-backed team highlighted allegations of war crimes stemming from two attacks — one involving Tomahawk missiles on the “clearly identifiable” school and another airstrike that dispersed tungsten pellets over a “clearly identifiable sports complex and residential area” in the southern city of Lamerd, also on February 28.
The U.N.-backed team reported that 22 civilian men and women were killed during these strikes. U.S. Central Command has denied any responsibility for the attack on Lamerd. Additionally, the team noted that state security forces in Iran executed killings on a “staggering scale” and alleged crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Iranian government.
Civilians, the report claims, found themselves trapped 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.”
The fact-finding mission on Iran, chaired by jurist Sara Hossain of Bangladesh, consists of independent experts and was established in 2022 by the Human Rights Council, the U.N.’s primary human rights body.
