UN mission says US strikes on Iranian school and sports complex may amount to war crimes

GENEVA: A United Nations-mandated fact-finding mission on Iran has found reasonable grounds to believe that two U.S. strikes on civilian sites in Iran amounted to war crimes, including an attack on a primary school in the southern city of Minab.

The mission examined a February strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab and another attack on a sports complex in Lamerd. According to the findings, the Minab strike killed more than 150 people, including about 120 children, while the Lamerd attack killed 22 people.

The report said the civilian nature of both locations should have been apparent and raised concerns over whether U.S. forces took adequate measures to verify their targets before carrying out the strikes.

In the Minab case, the mission concluded that U.S. forces relied on intelligence that was inaccurate or outdated and failed to adequately establish that the school constituted a legitimate military objective before the attack.

The mission said the circumstances surrounding the strikes indicated a failure to take feasible precautions to protect civilians and described the conduct as potentially constituting violations of international humanitarian law.

The findings are due to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where member states are expected to discuss the report. The fact-finding mission has called on both the United States and Iran to halt violations and take appropriate measures for victims.

The report also examined alleged abuses by Iranian authorities during a crackdown on nationwide protests. It concluded that the crackdown involved acts that could amount to crimes against humanity, including unlawful killings, torture and arbitrary detention.

US rejects findings

The United States has rejected the mission’s conclusions.

The Pentagon said its own review of the strikes was still underway and that it had no further findings to announce at this stage.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly also criticised the UN Human Rights Council and said the United States did not accept the report’s characterisation of its military actions. Washington has maintained that Iran was responsible for war crimes during the conflict.

The UN mission’s findings do not themselves constitute a judicial ruling or initiate criminal proceedings, but its conclusions could potentially be used as evidence in future legal proceedings.