UN mission says US committed war crimes in Iran

A UN fact-finding mission on Iran has found reasonable grounds to believe the United States was behind ‌the military strikes on the Minab Elementary School in Southern Iran in February.

The human rights experts commissioned by the UN also linked the US to a strike on a sports facility in Iran in the same month. They said both incidents constituted war crimes.

Both strikes led to the deaths of several civilians. PREMIUM TIMES reports that over 165 schoolgirls were reported dead after the attack on the elementary school. However, the US has refused to accept responsibility for the attack and says it is still investigating it.

The recent findings by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran panel identified the attack as a Tomahawk missile strike on a “clearly identifiable” school, according to Al Jazeera. 

The report examined the US’s conduct during the Iran war that began in February. It will be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The panel identified a separate air strike in which precision strike missiles scattered tungsten pellets over a “clearly identifiable sports complex and residential area” in the southern city of Lamerd.

“Following the United States and Israeli attacks on 28 February, the mission found reasonable grounds to believe the United States committed the war crime of launching indiscriminate attacks resulting in the loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects,” the fact-finding mission said in a statement.

The mission also examined the Iranian government’s response to nationwide unrest that began in late December. This paper reported the protest, which was triggered by the worsening economic crisis. The Iranian currency hit an all-time low against the US dollar, and shopkeepers and bazaar merchants in Tehran went on strike to protest. Over time, the protest spread to 574 locations across all 31 provinces of Iran. 

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The protest began on 28 December and lasted for about 19 days. Iran later said the protesters were infiltrated by American and Israeli agents who targeted security officials. More than 3,000 people were killed, including hundreds of security officials, while more than 10,000 people were arrested.

The UN mission said Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during their crackdown on the nationwide protests.

It accused the Iranian government of illegal killings, torture and persecution.

President Donald Trump had threatened a US military intervention to save oppressed citizens in January, before starting a war that would cause the deaths of thousands of Iranians and at least 13 US officials.