Iran school bombing: grounds to believe US was behind atrocity, UN finds

A UN fact-finding mission on Iran says there are reasonable grounds to believe the United States was behind two military strikes on a school and a sports facility in Iran in February, and that both constituted war crimes. The independent international mission's findings are to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh school

The mission examined the attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in the city of Minab, where, according to Iranian officials, more than 150 people were killed, including around 120 schoolchildren. The experts concluded it was an indiscriminate attack that caused civilian deaths and damage to civilian infrastructure, amounting to a war crime under international law. According to the report, US forces relied on intelligence suggesting a senior Iranian military commander was present at the site but failed to adequately verify it before launching. Investigators said the failure to update targeting intelligence and confirm the building was a military objective was more than mere negligence, and quoted the finding that the US directed the strikes at the school "while being aware of a substantial risk of striking a civilian object". The mission said the school was a clearly identifiable civilian object and found no evidence it was used for military purposes.

The Lamerd strike and the US response

The experts reached a similar conclusion over a strike on a sports centre in Lamerd, which the report says damaged nearby residential buildings and a school and killed and injured 22 civilians; that attack was also judged indiscriminate and therefore a war crime. US Central Command said in a statement in March that US forces had not launched any strikes into the city of Lamerd that day. US officials have previously said military operations are conducted in accordance with the law of armed conflict. In June, President Donald Trump said "nobody" purposefully attacked a girls' school in Iran in February, citing an investigation; Reuters has reported that an initial internal US military investigation showed US forces were probably responsible, and the Pentagon has since elevated the inquiry without publishing preliminary findings.

Crimes against humanity in the crackdown

The mission also found that the Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during their crackdown on anti-government protests that began in late December. It described a widespread and systematic attack on civilians involving unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and severe restrictions on freedom of expression. The investigation said it could not independently verify the death toll but believed the number of dead and injured was probably far higher than official figures, which put the toll at 3,038 killed and 25,000 injured. Iranian authorities have consistently rejected allegations of systematic rights violations, and Tehran has blamed "terrorists and rioters" backed by exiled opponents and by the US and Israel.