September 18, 2026 | 07:29 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Experts from the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council, said they have found "reasonable grounds" to believe that the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran, including one that hit a school in the southern Iranian city of Minab.
In a report published Thursday, the experts also accused Iran's theocratic government of carrying out crimes against humanity against its own people.
Established in 2022, the mission is chaired by Bangladeshi jurist Sara Hossain and consists of independent experts.
They were expected to present their findings to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday. The Council is made up of 47 UN member countries.
The mission examined US actions during the Iran war, which started in February, and the Iranian government's response to the nationwide unrest that began in late December.
Although it is not binding, the report contributes to the international evidence gathered about the Iran war and could eventually be used in attempts to bring legal cases to international courts.
How did the US react?
The Pentagon declined to comment on the mission's report. "Our investigation remains ongoing, and we have nothing to announce at the moment," it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the White House issued a strongly worded statement, with spokesperson Anna Kelly saying the UN top human rights body has "accomplished nothing for human rights while spouting unserious nonsense for decades."
"The only party in this conflict that has committed war crimes is the Iranian regime, which has murdered thousands of its own people, killed Americans overseas, executed acts of terrorism in the Strait of Hormuz, and launched indiscriminate attacks against its neighbors in the region," Kelly said.
US strikes in Minab and Lamerd
In the report, UN experts said they found reasonable grounds to believe that US forces were responsible for the attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab on February 28.
Iranian officials said that more than 150 people were killed in the attack, including around 120 schoolchildren.
The mission concluded that the attack was indiscriminate, causing civilian deaths and damage to civilian infrastructure. This amounts to a war crime under international law, according to the report.
UN experts concluded that the school was clearly a civilian facility and found no evidence that it was being used for military purposes.
They reached a similar conclusion regarding a strike on a sports center in Larned, also on February 28. The report stated that the attack damaged nearby residential buildings and a school, killing and injuring 22 civilians.
The report concluded that the strike was indiscriminate and therefore constituted a war crime.
In a statement issued in March, US Central Command said that US forces did not launch any strikes into the city of Lamerd that day.
Crackdown in Iran
The UN probe also found that Iranian authorities carried out widespread and systematic attacks against civilians during the protests that erupted in late December.
These attacks included unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and severe restrictions on freedom of expression, the report said.
According to human rights groups, bystanders were among those killed during the biggest crackdown since Shi'ite Muslim clerics took power in the 1979 revolution.
Tehran blamed "terrorists and rioters" backed by exiled opponents and foreign adversaries, including the US and Israel.
The probe stated that it could not independently verify the death toll, but it believes that the number of deaths and injuries is likely far higher than the official count of 3,038 deaths and 25,000 injuries.
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