UN mission says US strikes on Iran may amount to war crimes

A United Nations fact-finding mission on Iran has found reasonable grounds to believe that the United States committed war crimes in two airstrikes that killed at least 178 civilians in Iran in February.

The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said the strikes targeted a primary school in Minab and a sports facility and residential area in Lamerd.

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The Minab strike hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School, where more than 150 people were killed, including around 120 schoolchildren, according to Iranian officials.

The UN investigators said the school was clearly identifiable as a civilian facility and found no evidence that it was being used for military purposes.

They said the United States appeared to have relied on intelligence indicating that a senior Iranian military commander was at the site, but the information could not be verified before the strike.

The second strike, on a sports complex and residential area in Lamerd, killed 22 civilians, according to the UN mission. The investigators said the attack involved weapons that dispersed tungsten pellets over the area.

The mission said there were reasonable grounds to believe the attacks amounted to indiscriminate attacks that caused civilian deaths and damage to civilian objects.

US officials have previously said American military operations are conducted in accordance with the law of armed conflict. The United States has also denied responsibility for the Lamerd strike and has not publicly released the findings of its investigation into the Minab attack.

The UN mission also accused Iranian authorities of committing crimes against humanity during a crackdown on anti-government protests, including killings, torture, arbitrary detention and persecution.

The findings are investigative rather than a judicial ruling. The report is due to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.