Six UN human rights experts said there are reasonable grounds to believe the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran that killed at least 177 civilians, according to a new report to the UN Human Rights Council, the BBC reported.
The experts from the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said the February attacks on a primary school in Minab and a sports complex in Lamerd amounted to indiscriminate attacks that caused civilian deaths and damage to civilian infrastructure.
Minab School Strike
On 28 February, US and Israeli forces launched attacks on targets in Iran, including Tomahawk missile strikes on Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in the southern town of Minab, local authorities said.
The experts said at least 156 people were killed, including 120 children. They said the school was adjacent to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval complex that was also attacked the same day, but added that the school was clearly identifiable and that there was no information indicating it was used for military purposes.
The mission said it had reasonable grounds to believe the Minab strike was carried out by the US. It pointed to evidence it gathered, including media reports that described a preliminary US military inquiry finding US forces responsible, and the fact that the US is the only party to the conflict with Tomahawk missiles.
It also concluded the school was “the intended point of impact” and that the damage was not caused by an errant strike or collateral effects from the IRGC complex attack, citing survivors who said the school was hit twice. The US military has not released findings from its investigation, and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said it would “never target civilian targets”.
Lamerd Sports Complex
The mission also examined the strike in Lamerd on 28 February, when Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM) dispersed tungsten pellets over a sports complex and a residential area, local authorities said.
The experts said at least 21 civilians were killed, including seven children. As with Minab, they said the sports complex was clearly identifiable and that there was no information suggesting it was used for military purposes.
They concluded there were reasonable grounds to believe the strike was carried out by the US, citing evidence that included the US being the only party with PrSM missiles. The US military said it carried no strikes on Lamerd that day and disputed reports identifying the weapon used as a PrSM.
In both incidents, the experts said they had reasonable grounds to believe the US carried out the war crime of launching an indiscriminate attack resulting in the loss of life or injury to civilians, or damage to civilian objects.
Crackdown After Protests
The report also addressed crimes committed by Iranian authorities during a crackdown on mass anti-government protests in December 2025 and January 2026.
The experts said killings by security forces took place on “a staggering and unprecedented scale” across all 31 provinces. They cited witnesses, health workers and families who described security personnel firing assault rifles into crowds from rooftops and other elevated positions.
They also said protesters suffered severe injuries, including head, chest and eye wounds from metal shotgun pellets that caused permanent blindness. The mission reported that security forces attacked healthcare facilities, beating and arresting wounded demonstrators and some healthcare workers, which it said deterred victims from seeking urgent treatment.
The experts found that tens of thousands of people detained during the protests faced torture, solitary confinement and denial of legal counsel. They warned that the government had increased use of the death penalty against protesters, reporting at least 29 men executed following expedited trials.
The mission said it could not independently verify the death toll, but said there were strong grounds to believe it was significantly higher than the official figure of 3,000, which the government said included mainly security force members or bystanders. It noted that the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (Hrana) said it had confirmed more than 7,000 deaths, almost all of them protesters.
US Response, Iran Yet To Comment
The report said civilians in Iran were caught between gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity attributed to their government and harms linked to the conflict with the United States and Israel. The fact-finding mission said Iran had not yet commented on its findings, although it has previously rejected allegations of systematic violations.
A State Department official said the US did not give credibility to the report’s findings, adding that the protection of civilians was of the utmost importance. Separately, Iran accused the US and Israel of fomenting the unrest and blamed the deaths on what it described as “terrorists” and “rioters”.
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18 September 2026
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