UN Experts Raise War-Crime Concerns Over Deadly Strikes in Iran
Constantvpn.com – United Nations human rights experts say there are reasonable grounds to believe that the United States committed war crimes in two February attacks in Iran that killed at least 177 civilians, including large numbers of children.
The findings were issued by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, which examined missile attacks on a primary school in Minab and a sports complex in Lamerd on 28 February. The experts described both locations as clearly civilian sites and said they found no indication that either had been used for military purposes.
The US has rejected key elements of the assessment. Washington has denied carrying out a strike in Lamerd, while the US military has said it was examining the circumstances surrounding the Minab attack. A State Department official said the US did not regard the mission’s conclusions as credible.
School attack killed at least 120 children
Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in the southern town of Minab was hit on the day the US and Israel launched their war against Iran. Local authorities said at least 156 people died, among them 120 children.
The school stood beside an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval complex that was also attacked. However, the UN mission said the school was readily distinguishable from the military site and should have been recognized as a civilian object.
Its experts said the evidence pointed to the school itself being the intended target rather than being damaged by a missile that missed the nearby IRGC facility. Survivors told investigators that the school was struck twice.
The mission cited media accounts indicating that an initial US military inquiry had found American forces responsible. It also noted that the United States is the only party in the conflict known to possess Tomahawk missiles, the weapon linked to the attack.
“Civilians in Iran are 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.”
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that American forces would never deliberately attack civilian targets. The military has not made public the outcome of its investigation into the Minab strike.
Questions over Lamerd sports complex strike
Later on the same day, missiles scattered tungsten pellets over a sports complex and nearby homes in Lamerd. Local authorities said at least 21 civilians were killed, including seven children.
Anita Ghasemi was among those injured in the attack. The fact-finding mission said the sports facility was identifiable as civilian infrastructure and that it had uncovered no evidence of military activity there.
The panel said there were reasonable grounds to connect the attack to the United States, pointing in part to the reported use of Precision Strike Missiles, or PrSM. The experts said the US was the only belligerent known to possess those missiles.
US forces have disputed that account, saying no strike was conducted in Lamerd that day and challenging claims that a PrSM was used.
For both Minab and Lamerd, the UN experts concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe the US had carried out indiscriminate attacks that caused deaths, injuries and damage to civilian property. Launching such an attack can constitute a war crime under international humanitarian law when civilians or civilian sites are not adequately protected.
Report Also Details Iran’s Protest Crackdown
The mission’s latest submission to the UN Human Rights Council goes beyond the wartime strikes. It also examines Iran’s response to mass anti-government demonstrations across the country in December 2025 and January 2026.
The experts described the repression as a dramatic escalation beyond earlier crackdowns. They said security-force killings took place on what they called a “staggering and unprecedented scale” in all 31 Iranian provinces.
The mission concluded that Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during the crackdown. Iran has not yet publicly responded to the newest findings, but officials have previously denied accusations that the state systematically violates human rights.
The report places Iranian civilians at the centre of two overlapping crises: violence connected to the conflict involving the US and Israel, and alleged abuses by their own government during domestic unrest. Its conclusions do not themselves determine criminal responsibility in a court, but they add to international scrutiny and may shape future calls for accountability.
For families in Minab and Lamerd, the immediate issue remains the civilian toll. The deaths at a school and a sports complex have intensified questions about target selection, weapons use and whether military operations met the obligation to distinguish between combatants and civilians.
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