United Nations says US may have committed war crimes in Iran: What it means

A United Nations-mandated fact-finding mission investigating the February 28, 2026 strikes in Iran has concluded there are reasonable grounds to believe the United States may have committed war crimes in two attacks in southern Iran. The mission reported that the Minab primary school was struck twice during the opening hours of a joint US-Israeli assault; witnesses and imagery indicate the first strike hit the lower floor and the second struck upstairs as staff had moved children to a prayer room. Local Iranian officials reported heavy casualties at Minab, with roughly 156 deaths including scores of schoolchildren; independent tallies cited by the mission gave a comparable figure of 157.

Investigators said the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School was visibly a functioning civilian educational facility in satellite imagery, separated from an adjacent Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval facility by a wall and having distinct entrances and playgrounds. Weapons fragments recovered at the Minab site were identified by analysts as coming from a US Tomahawk Land Attack Missile, a munition not known to be in Iran’s arsenal, and the mission noted preliminary Pentagon findings that had “correlated” the strike with US forces.

The mission also examined an afternoon strike on the Shahid Haj Khalil Naimi Cultural and Sports Complex in Lamerd, which it described as having no military use. Verified video showed two missiles in the vicinity of the complex, one exploding over a residential area and another above the centre. Local reports cited by the mission placed the Lamerd death toll at 22 with more than 100 injuries and damage to a neighbouring school. While US Central Command has attributed the Lamerd damage to an Iranian Hoveyzeh cruise missile, the mission’s weapons analysts rejected that attribution and pointed to a US-made Precision Strike Missile, which the US has acknowledged using in Iran.

The United States and Israel did not provide access to personnel or respond to the mission’s requests for information, so investigators relied on satellite imagery, verified video, weapons analysis, and witness accounts from Iranian and independent sources. The mission concluded the US failed to take all feasible precautions to verify that the Minab school was not a military objective. The White House disputed the UN findings through a deputy press secretary, calling the Human Rights Council process “unserious” and reiterating accusations against Iran; US officials have not accepted responsibility for the Lamerd strike, though they have not disputed the Tomahawk evidence at Minab. Iranian authorities have maintained that both strikes were carried out by US weapons and have used the incidents to call for international accountability.