Deadly US strike on Iran school may have been a war crime, UN report finds

UN investigators raise war-crime concerns over deadly US strikes in Iran

Healfromzero.com – A United Nations investigative body has concluded that two US attacks launched during the first day of the war in Iran, including a strike on an elementary school, may constitute war crimes. The incidents in the southern cities of Minab and Lamerd caused heavy civilian casualties and have intensified scrutiny of the intelligence and targeting processes behind the operations.

The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission said it had reasonable grounds to believe the United States committed the war crime of conducting indiscriminate attacks that caused civilian deaths, injuries and damage to non-military sites.

School strike killed children and teachers

The February 28 strike on the Shajareh Tayyiba school in Minab killed at least 156 people, Iranian officials said. The victims included 120 children and 26 teachers. Although casualty figures have varied slightly, the episode would rank among the gravest civilian-loss incidents involving US forces in recent military history.

Investigators examined satellite images, videos, photographs, material supplied by credible organizations and specialists, and dozens of interviews conducted inside and outside Iran. Their report is due to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council.

“No information indicates that the school was used for military purposes at the time,” the UN report found.

The mission said the United States did not meet its obligation to take all feasible steps to establish that the school was a legitimate military objective before the attack.

Early details from a continuing Pentagon inquiry point to outdated intelligence as a possible factor. The US military was targeting a nearby naval base operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but the school was hit instead. Two people briefed on preliminary internal findings said US Central Command used target coordinates developed from old Defense Intelligence Agency information.

Satellite imagery from 2013 showed the school and the IRGC installation as part of a single compound. By 2016, however, a fence separated the school from the base and a distinct entrance had been added for the educational facility. Images from December 2025 showed dozens of people in the schoolyard, apparently engaged in play.

Second strike hit residential area

The same day, a separate US strike hit a sports center and nearby homes in Lamerd, another southern Iranian city. The UN investigation counted 22 civilian deaths in that attack.

The findings place the two strikes within a wider legal and political dispute over the conduct of the conflict. A war-crime determination can turn on whether an attack was directed at a lawful military target, whether commanders verified their target with the information reasonably available, and whether the anticipated civilian harm was excessive in relation to the military advantage expected.

The United States has its own laws addressing war crimes, even though it is not a member of the International Criminal Court. Its internal review of the Minab attack has not yet been made public. The Pentagon declined further comment while that inquiry remains underway.

A State Department official rejected the credibility of the UN report on behalf of the Trump administration. The official noted that President Donald Trump formally withdrew the United States from the UN Human Rights Council in February 2025, shortly after beginning his term, while accusing the body of antisemitism.

Trump initially suggested that Iran itself could have been responsible for the school strike. When challenged over the lack of public support for that explanation from within his administration, he said:

“Because I just don’t know enough about it.”

Report also documents Iran’s crackdown on dissent

The UN mission’s work extended beyond the US strikes. It also assessed Iran’s response to anti-government demonstrations in late 2025 and early 2026, before the war with the United States began.

Investigators described a severe campaign against protesters that killed thousands of people. Detainees were tortured and subjected to enforced disappearance, with families not informed of their whereabouts, the report said.

These “gross violations amount to crimes against humanity,” the investigators said, characterizing the campaign as “a widespread and systematic attack on civilians.”

The Iranian government did not grant the mission unrestricted access to the country. The report said Tehran replied to only about one-quarter of the investigators’ information requests. Requests for meetings with US officials and for information from the Israeli government also received no response.

The combined findings underline the different forms of accountability being examined during the conflict: potential unlawful conduct in military operations by the United States and alleged crimes against humanity in Iran’s treatment of its own population. The UN report does not itself impose criminal penalties, but its evidence and conclusions can shape international debate, future investigations and calls for governments to disclose how key decisions were made.

For families in Minab and Lamerd, the central questions remain immediate: why civilian locations were struck, what safeguards failed, and whether the pending US investigation will provide a public explanation. The UN mission’s conclusion adds pressure for a fuller accounting of the February 28 attacks and of the intelligence used to authorize them.