UN Mission Finds U.S. Strikes in Iran Likely War Crimes; White House Rejects Report
A UN fact-finding mission concluded that U.S. military strikes on an Iranian school and sports center likely constituted war crimes due to indiscriminate attacks causing significant civilian casualties. The report also condemned Iranian authorities for crimes against humanity during protests preceding the airstrikes, a finding the White House dismissed as nonsense.
The United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran has reported that U.S. military strikes on a school in Minab and a sports center in Lamerd likely constituted war crimes. The mission stated there are reasonable grounds to believe the United States was behind these February attacks, which resulted in significant civilian casualties.
Experts from the mission concluded that the attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab, which killed more than 150 people including around 120 schoolchildren, was an indiscriminate attack amounting to a war crime. The report noted that the U.S. failure to update targeting databases regarding the school and confirm it as a military objective amounted to more than mere negligence, despite the school being adjacent to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval complex.
A similar conclusion was reached regarding a strike on a sports centre in Lamerd. The UN experts stated that the attack damaged nearby residential buildings and a school, killing and injuring 22 civilians, and thus constituted a war crime. However, U.S. Central Command stated in March that American forces did not launch any strikes into the city of Lamerd on the day in question.
The report also condemned Iranian authorities for committing crimes against humanity during their deadly crackdown on anti-government protests that began in late December. These protests occurred weeks before the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes in Iran on Feb. 28. While the UN probe could not independently verify the death toll from the Iranian crackdown, it believed the number of dead and injured was likely far higher than official figures of 3,038 killed and 25,000 injured.
The White House rejected the findings. Spokeswoman Anna Kelly dismissed the UN report as "unserious nonsense" and asserted that only the Iranian regime has committed war crimes. This diplomatic tension highlights conflicting narratives, with President Donald Trump initially blaming Iran for the Minab school strike, while UN experts attribute it to U.S. forces.