A United Nations fact-finding mission stated on Thursday that it has reasonable grounds to believe the United States was responsible for two military strikes on a school and a sports facility in Iran in February, actions that could amount to war crimes. The mission also found that Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during their crackdown on anti-government protests.
The findings are detailed in a new report by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, which is set to be submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. The report examined the conduct of the U.S. during the Iran war, which began in February, and the Iranian government's response to nationwide unrest that started in late December.
U.S. officials have previously asserted that military operations are conducted in accordance with the law of armed conflict, while Iran has consistently denied allegations of systematic rights violations. Neither the Iranian nor the U.S. permanent missions in Geneva immediately responded to requests for comment from Reuters.
Minab School Strike
The U.N. experts reported that they found reasonable grounds to believe U.S. forces were responsible for an attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in the city of Minab. According to Iranian officials, the strike resulted in over 150 fatalities, including approximately 120 schoolchildren.
The mission concluded that the attack constituted an indiscriminate strike causing civilian deaths and damage to civilian infrastructure, which violates international law and amounts to a war crime.
According to the report, the U.S. acted on intelligence suggesting the presence of a senior Iranian military commander at the site. However, investigators found that the U.S. failed to adequately verify this information before launching the strike. The report states that the failure to update targeting intelligence and confirm the building's status as a military objective went beyond mere negligence, indicating a reckless disregard for the possibility of striking a civilian object.
In June, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that "nobody" purposefully attacked a girls’ school in Iran in February, citing an ongoing investigation. Reuters had previously reported that an initial internal U.S. military investigation indicated U.S. forces were likely responsible for the fatal strike in Minab. The Pentagon has since escalated the probe but has not yet published preliminary findings.
The U.N. experts noted that the school was a clearly identifiable civilian object and found no evidence it was being used for military purposes. The experts reached a similar conclusion regarding a strike on a sports center in Lamerd, which the report stated damaged nearby residential buildings and a school, resulting in 22 civilian casualties. This strike was also deemed indiscriminate and thus a war crime.
In March, U.S. Central Command stated that U.S. forces did not conduct any strikes into the city of Lamerd on the day in question.
Iran Abuses
The U.N. mission's investigation also found that Iranian authorities engaged in a widespread and systematic attack against civilians during protests that began in late December. This included unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and severe restrictions on freedom of expression.
Human rights organizations have reported that bystanders were among those killed during the most significant crackdown since the 1979 revolution. Tehran attributed the unrest to "terrorists and rioters" supported by exiled opponents and foreign adversaries, namely the U.S. and Israel.
While the probe could not independently verify the death toll, it suggested that the number of dead and injured was likely considerably higher than official figures, which reported 3,038 deaths and 25,000 injuries. The report characterized the government's response to the protests—involving violence, killings, internet shutdowns, and the use of the death penalty—as a significant escalation in suppressing dissent compared to previous patterns.