UN mission says US behind February strikes on Iranian school and sports facility
A United Nations fact-finding mission has said it has reasonable grounds to believe the United States carried out two military strikes in Iran in February, including an attack on a school and a sports facility. The mission said the strikes amounted to war crimes under international law. Its findings are set out in a new report to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
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The report says the mission examined both the US conduct during the war in Iran that began in February and the Iranian government's response to nationwide unrest that began in late December. It said the attack on Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in the city of Minab killed more than 150 people, including around 120 schoolchildren, according to Iranian officials. The mission said it found reasonable grounds to believe US forces were responsible for the strike.
Investigators said the US relied on intelligence suggesting a senior Iranian military commander was present at the site, but failed to verify the information adequately before launching the strike. They said the failure to update targeting intelligence and confirm the building was a military objective went beyond negligence. The report said the school was treated as a target despite a substantial risk that it was a civilian object, and that the attack was carried out recklessly.
The findings add to the legal and political sensitivity surrounding the conflict and the wider human rights situation in Iran. The mission also said Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during their crackdown on anti-government protests. That part of the report links the military strikes and the domestic unrest to a broader pattern of violence and accountability concerns.
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The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran was established to examine alleged rights violations in the country, and its latest report is likely to intensify scrutiny of both Tehran and Washington. The Iranian and US permanent missions in Geneva did not immediately respond to requests for comment. US officials have previously said military operations are conducted in accordance with the law of armed conflict, while Iran has rejected allegations of systematic rights violations.
The report does not appear to have been published in full yet, and the Pentagon has not released preliminary findings from its own probe into the Minab strike. It remains unclear whether the UN Human Rights Council will take any immediate action on the report. What happens next will depend on the response from the two governments and on whether further evidence is made public.
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