White House dismisses UN report alleging potential US war crimes in Iran

• A UN fact-finding mission says there are “reasonable grounds” to believe US forces committed war crimes in two February strikes in Iran that killed at least 178 civilians.
• The White House rejected the findings, while the UN report said the Minab school was the intended point of impact and that US forces failed to adequately verify it as a military target.

The White House has rejected a UN human rights report finding “reasonable grounds” to believe the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran on February 28, including an attack on a school in the southern city of Minab.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly dismissed the findings, accusing the UN Human Rights Council of having “accomplished nothing for human rights while spouting unserious nonsense for decades,” according to The Washington Post. She also said the only party in the conflict to have committed war crimes was the Iranian government.

The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said the two US strikes killed at least 178 civilians. One struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab, where Iranian authorities reported more than 150 deaths, including around 120 schoolchildren.

The mission concluded that the school was the intended point of impact and that the attack constituted an indiscriminate attack causing civilian deaths and damage to civilian infrastructure. It said US forces failed to adequately verify that the building was a military objective before striking it.

The second strike examined by the mission hit a sports facility and residential area in Lamerd, killing civilians and damaging nearby infrastructure. Together, the incidents formed the basis for the mission's conclusion that there were reasonable grounds to believe war crimes had been committed.

The US military has not publicly accepted responsibility for the Minab school attack. Earlier investigations by The Washington Post found evidence indicating likely US involvement, including footage that appeared to show a US Tomahawk missile striking near the school and an adjacent Iranian naval complex.

A separate Washington Post investigation reported that the school had appeared on a US target list and may have been mistakenly identified as a military site.

The UN mission's findings are not a criminal judgment, and the body cannot bring criminal cases. Its report is due to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council for discussion.