UN experts say grounds to believe US committed war crimes in Iran strikes

At least 156 people, including 120 children, were killed in February's strike on the primary school in Minab UN human rights experts say there are reasonable grounds to believe the US committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran that killed at least 177 civilians. A new report -Finding Mission on Iran, external said February's missile strikes on a primary school in Minab and a sports complex in Lamerd constituted indiscriminate attacks causing civilian deaths and damage to civilian infrastructure. The US previously denied striking Lamerd and said it was investigating what happened in Minab. A State Department official said the US did not give credibility to the findings in the report. The experts also found Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during a crackdown on mass anti-government protests in January. They said killings "a staggering and unprecedented scale" across all 31 provinces. 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 . 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.