GENEVA — A United Nations fact-finding mission has concluded there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that U.S. forces committed war crimes during two airstrikes in Iran in February, strikes that killed at least 178 civilians, including more than 120 schoolchildren in a single attack on a primary school in the southern city of Minab.

The findings, contained in a report to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council during its September-October session, represent the most authoritative international legal assessment to date of U.S. military conduct during the conflict that began on February 28. The report was prepared by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, a body established by the Human Rights Council in 2022.

The mission examined two specific incidents: a Tomahawk missile strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab, and a separate strike involving Precision Strike Missiles that dispersed tungsten pellets over a sports complex and residential area in Lamerd.

The Minab School Strike: ‘Reckless’ Conduct

The attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School killed more than 150 people, including approximately 120 schoolchildren, according to Iranian officials. The mission concluded that the strike constituted an indiscriminate attack causing civilian deaths and damage to civilian infrastructure, amounting to a war crime under international law.

The report’s most damning finding concerns the targeting process. According to investigators, U.S. forces relied on intelligence suggesting a senior Iranian military commander was present at the site but “failed to adequately verify that information before launching the strike”. The school was adjacent to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval complex, a fact that should have triggered heightened precautions under the law of armed conflict.

“Rather, the US directed the strikes at the building of the school while being aware of a substantial risk of striking a civilian object and acting recklessly as regards the possibility that this would happen,” the report states.

The mission emphasised that the failure to update targeting intelligence and confirm that the building remained a military objective “amounted to more than mere negligence”. UN experts said they found no evidence that the school was being used for military purposes at the time of the strike, describing it as a “clearly identifiable civilian object”.

The strike has been the subject of conflicting narratives since February. President Donald Trump said in June that “nobody” purposefully attacked the girls’ school, citing an internal investigation. Reuters subsequently reported that an initial internal U.S. military investigation showed U.S. forces were likely responsible for the fatal strike, a finding that prompted the Pentagon to elevate its inquiry, though no preliminary findings have been publicly released.

The Lamerd Strike: Contradicting CENTCOM

The second incident examined by the mission involved a U.S. strike on a sports center in Lamerd, also in southern Iran. According to the report, the attack damaged nearby residential buildings and a school, killing and wounding 22 civilians. The mission concluded the strike was indiscriminate and therefore constituted a war crime .

The munitions used in the Lamerd attack, Precision Strike Missiles dispersing clouds of tungsten pellets over a sports complex and residential area, raise particular concerns under international humanitarian law. Tungsten pellet munitions have been criticised by human rights organisations for their indiscriminate nature in populated areas.

The findings directly contradict a March statement from U.S. Central Command, which said American forces “did not launch any strikes into the city of Lamerd on that day”. The mission did not address the CENTCOM denial directly but presented its conclusion as based on corroborated evidence.

The Human Cost: A Family’s Grief

Nearly three months after the Minab strike, families of the victims were still struggling to come to terms with their loss. In May, CCTV+ interviewed the family of a girl named Setayesh, who was killed in the attack.

“When they said the school had been hit, I felt something shift inside me. I dropped everything and ran out into the street,” Setayesh’s father recalled. “When I finally arrived, I saw that there was nothing there, and I just kept calling out Setayesh’s name”.

Her mother described the agonising process of identifying her daughter’s body: “They told me, ‘Do not look for her; Setayesh has been martyred.’ I went to the morgue to identify her. The first one was not Setayesh, the second one was not, the third was not, and the fourth was not either, but the fifth one was Setayesh”.

The family’s grief was echoed in a letter sent to Pope Leo XIV in April by families of the Minab victims, who urged the pontiff to be “the voice of their voiceless children” and to press world powers for peace.

“Today, instead of feeling the warmth of our children’s embrace, we are left to hold onto their charred bags and bloody journals,” the letter said.

Calls For Accountability

The mission “urged Iran and the US to immediately cease all violations and crimes, provide full reparations to victims, and guarantee non-repetition”. It also called for an “immediate end to hostilities, renewed diplomatic action by all Member States for permanent peace, and third-state accountability through universal jurisdiction”.

The explicit endorsement of universal jurisdiction signals the mission’s expectation that its evidence will be used in legal proceedings in third countries, potentially bypassing the UN Security Council, where the United States holds veto power.

Iran has launched its own legal efforts. In July, Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said Iran is “determined to pursue legal action against those responsible for war crimes” and stressed that “the perpetrators must be punished in proportion to the crimes they have committed and must also pay compensation”.

Iranian legal officials have described submitting lawsuits to courts in countries with universal jurisdiction, including a case related to the Minab school strike. More than 4 million Iranians have reportedly granted power of attorney to Iranian lawyers to pursue damages.

U.S. Response And Political Context

The U.S. permanent mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report. U.S. officials have previously stated that they conduct military operations in accordance with the law of armed conflict.

The political context in Washington adds uncertainty to the report’s reception. The U.S. House of Representatives voted for the third time on Tuesday to limit President Trump’s authority to continue military operations against Iran, with seven Republicans joining Democrats in backing the resolution. The resolution passed 220-204, receiving more Republican support than previous efforts.

Trump has signalled optimism about ending the war, telling reporters he is hopeful Washington is moving “towards the end of the war” and claiming Iran wants to make a deal.

The Weight Of Evidence

The mission’s findings do not themselves amount to criminal convictions. Rather, they represent an investigative assessment based on evidence gathered by the mission and could contribute to future accountability proceedings. The “reasonable grounds to believe” standard is one used by UN investigative mechanisms to indicate that evidence exists to support a finding, though it falls short of the “beyond a reasonable doubt” threshold required for criminal conviction.

The report will be formally presented to the Human Rights Council, where member states will have the opportunity to respond. Whether that response includes concrete steps toward accountability, or further entrenchment in competing geopolitical narratives, remains to be seen. What is no longer in dispute, according to the UN’s own investigators, is that U.S. forces struck a clearly identifiable civilian school and a sports complex in populated areas, killing civilians in attacks the mission has determined constituted war crimes.

Veritas Press Investigative Analysis
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Source: Veritas Press C.I.C. | Multi-News Agencies