UN-backed experts allege US war crimes in Iran strikes

U.N.-backed human rights experts said they found “reasonable grounds” to believe the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran, including an attack on a school that killed scores of civilians, most of them children.

The international fact-finding mission on Iran, commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council, published its report Thursday and was expected to present the findings Monday to the 47-member council in Geneva. The report is not binding, but NPR reported it could add to evidence used in future efforts to seek justice in international courts.

The mission said its findings on the United States center on two strikes on Feb. 28, during U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran. One involved Tomahawk missiles that hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in the southern city of Minab, which the experts described as “clearly identifiable.” Iranian health officials and state media said about 170 people were killed, most of them schoolgirls between ages 7 and 12. NPR reported that Iranian state media put the death toll at 168.

“Following the United States and Israeli attacks on 28 February, 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,” the fact-finding team said.

An Associated Press investigation cited by NPR found that at least one U.S. missile hit the school at the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran in February. The experts concluded that “the building of the school was the intended point of impact” and that the damage was not caused by an errant strike or collateral damage from an attack on a nearby compound of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

CBS News reported that a preliminary U.S. assessment suggested the United States was “likely” responsible for the deadly school attack but did not intentionally target it and may have hit it in error, possibly because dated intelligence wrongly identified the area as still part of an Iranian military installation, according to a person briefed on the preliminary intelligence.

The Trump administration has not directly accepted responsibility for the school strike or released findings from a Pentagon investigation. NPR reported that the U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

The mission also alleged U.S. war crimes in a missile strike that dispersed tungsten pellets over a “clearly identifiable sports complex and residential area” in the southern city of Lamerd, also on Feb. 28. The team said 22 civilian men and women were killed. U.S. Central Command has denied responsibility for the Lamerd strike.

The report also accused Iran’s government of committing crimes against humanity against its own people. The experts said killings by state security forces occurred on a “staggering scale,” citing a January crackdown on nationwide anti-government protests and broader “violent repression” over the past two years.

The mission said Iranian forces fired assault rifles into crowds, beat protesters and arrested healthcare workers. Detainees faced torture and were deprived of legal counsel, leaving families “in the dark” about their whereabouts, the experts said. They also said Tehran intensified use of the death penalty and that more than 70 people, including five women and three boys, remain at “imminent risk of execution.”

“The report concluded that many of these gross violations amount to crimes against humanity — including murder, imprisonment, torture, and other inhumane acts committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians,” the statement said.

The experts said civilians were caught between “gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by their own government and the nation’s deadly conflict with the United States and Israel.” They called on both the United States and Iran to halt violations and provide “full reparations to victims.”

The mission, chaired by Bangladeshi jurist Sara Hossain, was created in 2022 by the Human Rights Council. Its report was based on interviews with 73 people inside and outside Iran, as well as documentation, satellite imagery, photos, videos and information from organizations and experts it deemed credible. The team said its work was partly impeded by the conflict, displacement, an internet shutdown and a lack of full cooperation from both governments.