Devastating Air Strikes: UN Report Accuses USA of War Crimes in Iran
According to UN rapporteurs, two US strikes in Iran could be classified as war crimes. These include an attack on a girls' school earlier this year. However, the Iranian government is also facing sharp criticism.
A UN commission of inquiry has accused the United States of possible war crimes in Iran. There are sufficient grounds to believe that the USA is responsible for two military strikes against a school and a sports facility in February, the independent UN mission on Iran stated.
The report is to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. It examines US conduct in the war that has been ongoing since February. In addition, the Iranian government's conduct in the violent suppression of nationwide unrest was also reviewed.
Attacks on Girls' School and Sports Facility
According to UN experts, there are sufficient grounds to believe that US forces were responsible for an attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in the city of Minab. According to Iranian sources, more than 150 people were killed, including approximately 120 schoolchildren. This constituted a reckless attack on civilians and civilian infrastructure, which amounts to a war crime under international law.
According to the report, the school was located next to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval base. The fact that the USA failed to update the relevant information in its targeting databases and did not verify whether the building constituted a military target went beyond mere negligence. "Rather, the USA directed the strikes against the school building despite being aware of the substantial risk of hitting a civilian object, and recklessly disregarded the possibility that this might occur," the UN report states.
US President Donald Trump stated in June, citing a US military investigation, that no one had intentionally attacked a girls' school in Iran in February. According to the report, outdated data from the US military intelligence agency DIA regarding the target area was used in the strike.
A further attack on a sports complex in Lamerd in Fars Province killed 22 people according to official Iranian figures, the report states. International media had reported on the use of novel US munitions in the incident. The detonation of a missile in the air had scattered tungsten pellets over a wide area. This attack in a residential area is also assessed in the UN report as a possible war crime.
Sharp Criticism of Iranian Leadership
With regard to human rights violations in Iran, the UN mission found that Iranian authorities had systematically targeted civilians during protests that began at the end of December. These actions included unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances.
According to human rights groups, numerous uninvolved bystanders were also killed in what has been the most severe crackdown on protests since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The regime in Tehran holds US- and Israel-backed "terrorists and insurgents" responsible for the unrest.
The UN commission was unable to independently verify the casualty figures, but believes that the actual number of victims is far higher than the official figures of 3,038 deaths and 25,000 injuries. The Iranian government's response represents a significant escalation in the suppression of dissent, according to the report. Iran has consistently rejected allegations of systematic human rights violations.
