UN inquiry raises war-crime concerns over US strikes in southern Iran
Goldlaner.com – A United Nations investigative mission has concluded that two US attacks carried out at the start of the war in Iran could amount to war crimes, including a February 28 strike that struck an elementary school in Minab.
The attack on the Shajareh Tayyiba school in the southern city killed at least 156 people, Iranian officials said. The dead included 120 children and 26 teachers. Although casualty figures have varied slightly, the incident ranks among the most serious civilian-loss events involving US forces in recent military history.
Investigators also reviewed a second strike launched the same day in Lamerd, another southern Iranian city. That attack hit a sports complex and nearby homes, killing 22 civilians, the UN mission said.
“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 language came from the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission, which examined both incidents as part of a broader assessment of violence and rights abuses in Iran. Its findings are to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council.
Questions over the school strike
The investigation found no indication that the Minab school was being used for military activity when it was hit. It said the United States did not meet its duty to take all practicable steps to confirm that the location was a lawful military target.
Early information from a separate US internal inquiry has pointed to intelligence failures. Two people briefed on preliminary findings said US Central Command used target coordinates tied to outdated Defense Intelligence Agency material while aiming at a neighboring Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval facility.
Older satellite images from 2013 showed the school and the IRGC installation within what had once been a shared compound. But imagery from 2016 showed a fence separating the school from the remaining base, along with a distinct entrance for the school. Images taken in December 2025 appeared to show dozens of people in the schoolyard.
“No information indicates that the school was used for military purposes at the time,”
The UN report stated.
The case highlights the central importance of current intelligence in military operations near civilians. International humanitarian law requires parties to a conflict to distinguish between military targets and civilian sites, and to take feasible precautions before an attack. A school does not lose its civilian protection simply because of a historic connection to a nearby military compound.
US response and investigation
A State Department official rejected the credibility of the UN findings on behalf of the Trump administration. The official noted that President Donald Trump formally withdrew the United States from the UN Human Rights Council in February 2025, only weeks after returning to office, after accusing the body of antisemitism.
The Defense Department did not address the report’s specific conclusions. It said an investigation remained underway and that there was no further announcement at the time.
The United States has not released the results of its own review. The Pentagon inquiry has remained unresolved for months, leaving key questions unanswered about how targeting information was assessed, whether warnings about its age were considered, and what accountability may follow if mistakes are confirmed.
Trump initially suggested Iran could have been responsible for the school strike. When asked why no one publicly within his administration appeared to support that position, he replied:
“Because I just don’t know enough about it.”
While Washington is not a party to the International Criminal Court, US law contains its own provisions addressing war crimes. The UN mission’s assessment does not itself establish criminal liability, but it could add pressure for a transparent US investigation and for officials to disclose how the Minab target was selected.
Broader findings on Iran
The UN inquiry also examined Iran’s suppression of anti-government demonstrations in late 2025 and early 2026, before fighting with the United States began. It concluded that the crackdown killed thousands of people and involved torture and enforced disappearances of detainees without notice to their families.
Investigators described those actions as gross violations rising to crimes against humanity, characterizing them as a widespread and systematic assault on civilians.
The mission said it built its findings from satellite imagery, photographs, videos, material supplied by credible organizations and specialists, and dozens of interviews conducted inside and outside Iran. Iranian authorities did not permit investigators unrestricted access to the country. The report said Tehran answered only about one-quarter of the mission’s information requests.
Requests for meetings with US officials, as well as requests for information from the Israeli government, did not receive responses, the investigators said. Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was contacted for comment.
The combined findings place scrutiny on both the conduct of the war and the treatment of Iranian civilians by their own government. For families in Minab and Lamerd, the legal debate centers on an immediate human cost: children, educators, athletes, residents and other civilians were killed in places ordinarily expected to provide safety and public life.
The next stage will be the Human Rights Council’s consideration of the mission’s work. Its conclusions may shape further calls for evidence preservation, independent review and accountability, even as the United States continues its separate and unfinished internal examination of the school strike.
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