UN Mission Finds 'Reasonable Grounds' US Committed War Crimes in Iran Strikes That Killed 178 Civilians

A UN-backed investigation has found 'reasonable grounds' to believe US forces committed war crimes in two strikes on civilian sites in Iran that killed at least 178 people, including women and children.

The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said Thursday that strikes on a primary school in Minab and a sports complex in Lamerd on 28 February amounted to indiscriminate attacks under international humanitarian law.

The report was published Thursday, and the mission is expected to formally present its findings to the 47-member UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday. Its conclusions are not a court judgment, but they could provide evidence for future accountability proceedings.

School Strike Killed Scores of Children

The deadliest incident involved the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab, southern Iran. Iranian state media have put the Minab death toll at 168, with most of those killed being children. The UN mission itself said more than 150 people were killed there, including approximately 120 schoolchildren.

The UN investigators said the school was a 'clearly identifiable civilian object' and found no evidence that it was being used for military purposes.

The school stood beside an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval complex. The mission said the US failed to adequately update its targeting information and confirm that the building remained a military objective before directing the strike.

According to the panel, that failure went beyond simple negligence because US forces acted despite a substantial risk that they were striking a civilian building. It therefore found reasonable grounds to believe the attack constituted a war crime.

Trump said in June that 'nobody' purposefully attacked the school. An initial US military assessment indicated American forces were likely responsible, but the Pentagon has not released findings from its ongoing investigation.

Lamerd Strike Also Deemed Indiscriminate

The mission reached a similar conclusion over an attack on a sports complex and surrounding residential area in Lamerd. Investigators said precision-strike missiles scattered tungsten pellets across the area, killing and injuring 22 civilian men and women and damaging nearby homes and a school.

US Central Command previously denied carrying out any strike in Lamerd that day. The US government had not immediately responded to the UN mission's new findings on Thursday. Together, the two incidents accounted for at least 178 civilian deaths, according to the fact-finding team.

Iran Also Accused of Crimes Against Humanity

The report was also sharply critical of Tehran. Investigators found that Iranian authorities carried out a 'widespread and systematic' attack against civilians during anti-government protests beginning in late 2025, including alleged unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances.

Iran's official figures put the protest death toll at 3,038, with another 25,000 people injured, although the mission said the true numbers were probably significantly higher.

Tehran has rejected accusations of systematic abuses and blamed violence during the unrest on what it calls foreign-backed 'terrorists and rioters'. US officials, meanwhile, have maintained that American military operations comply with the law of armed conflict.

The mission called on both governments to end violations, provide full reparations to victims and take steps to ensure such violations are not repeated.

Its findings leave two governments on opposing sides of a widening war facing grave allegations from the same UN-backed investigation, one over attacks abroad and the other over the treatment of its own population.