Key facts
- A UN fact-finding mission found reasonable grounds to believe the US committed war crimes in Iran.
- The mission also found Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during protests.
- US forces are believed to be responsible for an attack on a primary school in Minab that killed over 150 people.
- The UN experts concluded the Minab school strike was an indiscriminate attack amounting to a war crime.
- A strike on a sports center in Lamerd also concluded to be a war crime.
- Iranian authorities carried out a widespread and systematic attack against civilians during protests.
A United Nations fact-finding mission stated on Thursday that it has reasonable grounds to believe the United States committed war crimes through two military strikes in Iran in February. The mission also found that Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during their crackdown on anti-government protests.
The findings, detailed in a report to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, examined the US's conduct during the Iran war that began in February and the Iranian government's response to nationwide unrest that started in late December.
The UN experts said they found reasonable grounds to believe US forces were responsible for an attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in the city of Minab, where more than 150 people were killed, including around 120 schoolchildren, according to Iranian officials. The attack constituted an indiscriminate attack causing civilian deaths and damage to civilian infrastructure, amounting to a war crime under international law, the mission concluded.
According to the report, the US relied on intelligence suggesting a senior Iranian military commander was present at the site but failed to adequately verify the information before launching the strike. Investigators said the failure to update targeting intelligence and confirm the building was a military objective amounted to more than mere negligence.
In June, US President Donald Trump said that "nobody" purposefully attacked a girls' school in Iran in February, citing an investigation into the incident. The Pentagon has since elevated the probe but has not published any preliminary findings.
UN experts said the school was a clearly identifiable civilian object and found no evidence that it was being used for military purposes. The experts reached a similar conclusion over a strike on a sports centre in Lamerd. The report said the attack damaged nearby residential buildings and a school and killed and injured 22 civilians. It concluded that the strike was indiscriminate and therefore constituted a war crime.
US Central Command said in a statement in March that US forces did not launch any strikes into the city of Lamerd on that day.
The UN mission probe found that the Iranian authorities carried out a widespread and systematic attack against civilians during protests that erupted in late December last year, involving unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and severe restrictions on freedom of expression.
Rights groups say bystanders were among those killed during the biggest crackdown since Shi'ite Muslim clerics took power in 1979. Tehran blamed "terrorists and rioters" backed by exiled opponents and foreign foes the US and Israel.
The probe said it could not independently verify the death toll, but that it believed the number of dead and injured was likely far higher than official figures which say 3,038 people were killed, and 25,000 people injured.
The government's response to the protests - including violence and killings, cutting off the internet and use of the death penalty, marked a significant escalation from previous patterns of suppressing dissent, the report said.