A United Nations fact-finding mission has said there are reasonable grounds to believe that U.S. forces carried out strikes on a school and a sports facility in Iran in February that could constitute war crimes.
Reuters reported on Thursday, September 17, that the independent international fact-finding mission on Iran examined U.S. military actions during the war in Iran as well as the Iranian government’s response to nationwide protests. The findings are due to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council.
According to the report, the fact-finding mission concluded that the strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab, which Iranian officials said killed more than 150 people, including around 120 students, was an indiscriminate attack on a civilian target.
The report said U.S. forces carried out the strike based on intelligence indicating that a senior Iranian military commander was present at the site. However, the mission said the information about the target was not adequately verified and updated before the attack.
The UN mission also examined a strike on a sports facility in Lamerd, saying it damaged nearby residential buildings and a school and resulted in 22 civilian casualties, including people killed and injured.
The mission described that attack as indiscriminate and said it constituted a war crime.
In another part of the report, the UN fact-finding mission accused the Iranian government of crimes against humanity during its crackdown on nationwide protests.
The report cited unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and severe restrictions on freedom of expression.
The mission said it was unable to independently verify the number of victims of the protests but believed the number of people killed and injured could be significantly higher than the official figures of 3,038 deaths and 25,000 injuries.
U.S. and Iranian officials have not yet commented on the report. U.S. officials have previously said that American military operations were conducted in accordance with the laws governing armed conflict, while Iran has rejected allegations of systematic human rights violations.
