UN-backed experts cite possible US war crimes in Iran strikes

Experts commissioned by the UN’s top human rights body said they found “reasonable grounds” to believe the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran, including an attack on a school in the southern city of Minab.

The experts also accused Iran’s government of committing crimes against humanity against its own people in a report published on Thursday. 

The report is not legally binding but adds to international evidence being gathered over alleged crimes during the war in Iran. Its findings could eventually be used in efforts to pursue justice in international courts. 

The fact-finding mission on Iran, chaired by Bangladeshi jurist Sara Hossain, comprises independent experts. It was established in 2022 by the UN Human Rights Council, the organisation’s top human rights body, based in Geneva.

The experts were due to present their findings to the 47-member council on Monday.

The fact-finding mission said its findings on alleged US war crimes centred on two US airstrikes that killed at least 178 civilians, including women and children. 

At the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran in February, at least one US missile struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab, according to an Associated Press investigation. There has been no final accounting of the casualties. 

Iranian state media reported that 168 people were killed in the strike, most of them children.

“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,” a UN statement on the findings said, referring to the February 28 attacks by the US and Israel.

The experts concluded that the school building was the intended point of impact and said the damage was not caused by an errant strike or collateral damage from an attack on a nearby compound belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. 

The Trump administration has not directly accepted responsibility or released the findings of a Pentagon investigation into the school bombing.

The second strike involved Precision Strike Missiles that dispersed tungsten pellets over a “clearly identifiable sports complex and residential area” in Lamerd, also on February 28. The experts said 22 civilian men and women were killed.

US Central Command has denied responsibility for the Lamerd strike.

The White House issued a strong response to the report.

Spokesperson Anna Kelly said the Human Rights Council had “accomplished nothing for human rights while spouting unserious nonsense for decades”.

“The only party in this conflict that has committed war crimes is the Iranian regime,” Kelly said, accusing Tehran of killing thousands of its own people, attacking Americans overseas and launching attacks against neighbouring countries.

The US State Department also rejected the findings, saying the Trump administration had withdrawn from the Human Rights Council over what it described as persistent anti-American rhetoric and antisemitism.

“As such, we do not give credibility to findings in this report,” the department said.

The fact-finding mission also accused Iranian security forces of committing widespread human rights violations and crimes against humanity.

The team said killings by state security forces had occurred on a “staggering scale” and described a campaign of “violent repression” over the past two years.

According to the report, security forces fired assault rifles into crowds, beat protesters and arrested healthcare workers. Detainees were subjected to torture and denied access to legal counsel, while their families were often left without information about their whereabouts.

The experts also said Iran had intensified its use of the death penalty.

More than 70 people, including five women and three boys, remained at “imminent risk of execution”, they said.

The report said many of the violations amounted to crimes against humanity, including murder, imprisonment, torture and other inhumane acts committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians.

The experts called on both the US and Iran to halt rights violations and alleged crimes and provide “full reparations to victims”.

The report used a “victims-centred approach” and was based on interviews with 73 people inside and outside Iran, as well as documents, satellite imagery, photographs, videos and information from what the experts described as credible organisations and specialists.

The continuing conflict, which has displaced people in Iran, along with an internet shutdown and a lack of full cooperation from both governments, hindered the investigation, the experts said.

Nearly three dozen requests for information sent to the Iranian government went unanswered. Requests made to the US government in June for information and meetings with officials also received no response.