UN fact-finding mission says US committed war crimes in Iran strikes

A United Nations fact-finding mission has concluded that the United States committed war crimes in two airstrikes carried out in Iran on February 28, according to a report released Thursday. The independent experts, assembled by the UN Human Rights Council and chaired by Bangladeshi jurist Sara Hossain, found "reasonable grounds" to believe that both strikes were indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets—a determination that, under international law, constitutes a war crime.

The first strike hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab, a city in southern Iran. Iranian officials reported that more than 150 people were killed in the attack, with approximately 120 of them schoolchildren. The UN mission examined the evidence and concluded that the school was unambiguously a civilian facility with no military purpose. The strike caused civilian deaths and destroyed civilian infrastructure. The second attack targeted a sports center in Lamerd the same day, killing and injuring 22 civilians and damaging nearby residential buildings and a school. The mission reached the same conclusion: the attack was indiscriminate and therefore a war crime under international law.

The U.S. Central Command disputed the finding regarding Lamerd, stating in March that American forces had not launched any strikes into that city on February 28. The Pentagon declined to comment further on the mission's report, saying only that its own investigation remained ongoing. The White House, however, issued a sharp rebuke. Spokesperson Anna Kelly accused the UN Human Rights Council of having "accomplished nothing for human rights while spouting unserious nonsense for decades." She asserted that the Iranian regime, not the United States, was responsible for war crimes—pointing to thousands of deaths of its own citizens, attacks on Americans overseas, acts of terrorism in the Strait of Hormuz, and indiscriminate strikes against regional neighbors.

The mission, established in 2022, examined American military actions during the Iran war, which began in February, as well as the Iranian government's response to nationwide unrest that erupted in late December. The UN experts found that Iranian authorities carried out widespread and systematic attacks against civilians during those protests. The documented abuses included unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and severe restrictions on freedom of expression. Human rights groups noted that bystanders were among those killed in what became the largest crackdown since Iran's 1979 revolution. Tehran blamed the unrest on "terrorists and rioters" backed by exiled opponents and foreign powers, including the United States and Israel.

The mission could not independently verify the death toll from the crackdowns, but it stated that the actual number of deaths and injuries is likely substantially higher than Iran's official count of 3,038 deaths and 25,000 injuries. The report is scheduled to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council, which comprises 47 member countries, on Monday. Though the findings are not legally binding, they add to the international record of evidence regarding the conflict and could eventually support legal cases brought to international courts against both parties.