US Committed War Crimes In Iran? UN Experts Cite ‘Reasonable Grounds’

United Nations backed human rights experts said Thursday there are “reasonable grounds” to believe the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran on the first day of the war.

The findings are contained in a new report by the Independent International Fact Finding Mission on Iran, which will be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The report examines US conduct during the Iran war that began in February, as well as the Iranian government’s response to nationwide unrest that began in late December.

The UN commissioned experts focused on two US strikes that killed at least 178 civilians, including women and children, on the first day of the war.

One strike hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab, southern Iran. An Associated Press investigation found that at least one US missile struck the school. Iranian officials said more than 150 people were killed, including around 120 schoolchildren.

The UN experts said there were reasonable grounds to believe US forces were responsible and concluded that the attack was an indiscriminate strike on a clearly identifiable civilian object, causing civilian deaths and damage to civilian infrastructure. They said this amounted to a war crime under international law.

The report said the US failed to update information about the school in its targeting databases, despite its proximity to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval complex, and failed to confirm that the building was a military objective. The experts said this went beyond mere negligence.

“Rather, the US 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,” they said.

In June, US President Donald Trump said “nobody” purposefully attacked a girls’ school in Iran, citing an investigation. Reuters had earlier reported that an initial US military investigation found US forces were likely responsible for the fatal Minab strike. The Pentagon later elevated the probe but has not released preliminary findings.

The UN experts said they found no evidence that the school was being used for military purposes.

The mission reached a similar conclusion about a strike on a sports complex in Lamerd, where missiles dispersed tungsten pellets over a clearly identifiable sports complex and residential area. The attack damaged nearby homes and a school and killed or injured 22 civilians, the report said, concluding it was indiscriminate and constituted a war crime.

US Central Command said in March that US forces did not conduct strikes in Lamerd that day.

The UN mission also found that Iranian authorities carried out a widespread and systematic attack against civilians during protests that began in late December, involving unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and severe restrictions on freedom of expression.