UN mission finds grounds for US war crimes in two February strikes on Iran

The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said on 17 September it had reasonable grounds to believe United States forces carried out two February strikes that amounted to war crimes. One hit Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab. The other hit a sports centre in Lamerd. The same report finds that Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during the crackdown on protests that began in late December.

The mission is chaired by Bangladeshi jurist Sara Hossain. It was created by the UN Human Rights Council in 2022. The findings go to the Council in Geneva. They are not a court judgment. They are a public record that member states will have to answer, ignore or act on.

Minab

Iranian officials say more than 150 people were killed at the Minab school, including about 120 schoolchildren. Associated Press reporting and the mission’s own count put civilian deaths from the two strikes at least at 178. The school stood next to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval complex. The mission said the building was a clearly identifiable civilian object and that it found no evidence the school itself was being used for military purposes.

The report says US forces relied on intelligence that a senior Iranian commander was at the site and failed to verify that claim before firing. It also says targeting databases were not updated to reflect the school. The mission’s language goes past negligence. It says the United States directed strikes at the school building while aware of a substantial risk of hitting a civilian object and acted recklessly as to that risk. The weapons described in later briefings of the same file include Tomahawk missiles.

Under the law of armed conflict an attack is indiscriminate when it is not directed at a specific military objective, or when the method used cannot distinguish civilians from combatants. That is the charge the mission has put on Minab.

Lamerd

The second strike, also dated to 28 February in associated reporting, used Precision Strike Missiles that dispersed tungsten pellets over a sports complex and nearby housing in Lamerd. The mission said the attack damaged residential buildings and a school and killed or injured 22 civilians. It reached the same legal conclusion: an indiscriminate attack, and therefore a war crime.

The Trump administration has not accepted responsibility for the school strike. It has not released the Pentagon investigation into that bombing. The mission names the United States as the attacker on reasonable grounds. Washington can contest the attribution, the targeting analysis, or both. As of Thursday it had done neither in public.

The Iran half of the same report

The mission also examined the government response to nationwide unrest. It found murder, torture and persecution of protesters and said the death toll is likely higher than official figures. Those findings are framed as crimes against humanity, a different legal category from the war-crimes conclusions on the two air strikes. One set of facts concerns conduct in an international armed conflict. The other concerns a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population.

Keeping both halves in one document is the point of this mandate. The Council asked the mission to look at Iran. The war that began in February put US weapons into that frame. The mission did not treat the war as a reason to drop the protest file.

What the finding can and cannot do

Reasonable grounds is the standard these missions use. It is lower than proof beyond reasonable doubt and lower than the standard a criminal court would need for conviction. It is high enough to put specific buildings, dates and weapons on the record. The Council can mandate a follow-up. National prosecutors in states that claim universal jurisdiction can open files. The International Criminal Court has no standing jurisdiction over the United States for these acts unless a separate path is built.

The political calendar is tight. UN General Assembly high-level week starts next week. Antonio Guterres has already said law-breaking powers have paralysed the Security Council. A mission report that names the United States and Iran in the same week does not unlock that Council. It does set the terms on which capitals will have to speak if they speak at all.