“Civilians in Iran are caught between gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by their own government and the nation’s deadly conflict with the United States and Israel,” the fact-finding mission warned in a statement on Thursday.
For their latest report to the UN Human Rights Council, the mission’s three independent experts investigated two of the deadliest attacks on civilians during the conflict.
On 28 February, when the US and Israel launched their war against Iran, Tomahawk missiles struck Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in the southern town of Minab, killing at least 156 people, including 120 children, according to local authorities.
The fact-finding mission’s experts said the school was adjacent to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval complex also attacked that day, but that the school was clearly identifiable and that no information indicated that it was used for military purposes.
The experts said that, based on the evidence gathered – including media reports indicating that a preliminary US military inquiry found US forces responsible, and the fact that the US is the only party to the conflict that possesses Tomahawk missiles – they had reasonable grounds to believe that the strike on the school was carried out by the US.
They also concluded that the school was “the intended point of impact and that the damage did not result from an errant strike or collateral damage” from the attack on the IRGC complex, citing survivors as saying the school was struck twice.
The US military has yet to release the findings of its investigation into the Minab strike, but Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said it would “never target civilian targets”.
Also on 28 February, Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM) dispersed clouds of tungsten pellets over a sports complex and residential area in the town of Lamerd, killing at least 21 civilians, including seven children, according to local authorities.
Again, the fact-finding mission’s experts said the sports complex was clearly identifiable and that no information indicated it was used for military purposes.
They concluded by saying there were reasonable grounds to believe that the strike was carried out by the US, citing evidence including the fact that the US is the only party to the conflict that possesses PrSM missiles.
The US military has said it carried no strikes on Lamerd that day and disputed reports identifying the weapon used as a PrSM.
In both incidents, the fact-finding mission’s experts said there were “reasonable grounds to believe that the US committed the war crime of launching an indiscriminate attack resulting in loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects”.
