Iranians gather at a cemetery to commemorate victims who were killed in a U.S. attack that hit a school in Minab, Iran in March.
UN probe finds grounds to suspect US war crimes in Iran
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- UN--commissioned human rights experts found "reasonable grounds" to believe the US committed war crimes in two Iran airstrikes on Feb. 28.
Human rights experts commissioned by the United Nations' top human rights body have concluded there are "reasonable grounds" to believe the United States committed war crimes during two airstrikes in Iran earlier this year, according to a statement from the international fact-finding mission on Iran on Thursday.
Two strikes under scrutiny
The mission's findings center on a pair of airstrikes carried out on Feb. 28, at the outset of the US.-’Israeli’ war against Iran.
Together, the strikes are reported to have killed at least 178 civilians, including women and children.
The first strike reportedly involved Tomahawk missiles fired at the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in the southern city of Minab, a site the fact-finding mission described as "clearly identifiable."
A US munition is believed to have struck the school, though there has been no final, authoritative accounting of what happened there. Iranian state media have put the death toll at 168 people, most of them children.
The second strike hit a sports complex and residential area in the southern city of Lamerd, also on Feb. 28. According to the mission, precision-guided missiles dispersed tungsten pellets over the area, which it likewise characterized as "clearly identifiable."
The Mission's conclusion
The fact-finding team said the evidence gives reasonable grounds to believe the United States committed the war crime of launching indiscriminate attacks that resulted in civilian deaths, injuries, or damage to civilian property.
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