UN human rights experts say there are reasonable grounds to believe the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran that killed at least 177 civilians.
The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said missile strikes on a primary school in Minab and a sports complex in Lamerd on 28 February amounted to indiscriminate attacks.
The experts said the strikes caused civilian deaths and damaged civilian infrastructure. Their findings are contained in a report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council.
The US has denied carrying out the strike on Lamerd and said it was investigating the attack in Minab.
A US State Department official rejected the findings, saying Washington did not give them credibility.
In Minab, Tomahawk missiles struck Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School, killing at least 156 people, including 120 children, according to local authorities.
The fact-finding mission said the school was next to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval facility that was also attacked that day. It said the school was clearly identifiable and found no information indicating that it was being used for military purposes.
The experts said evidence, including reports that a preliminary US military inquiry had found US forces responsible, gave them reasonable grounds to believe the United States carried out the strike.
They also said the school appeared to have been the intended target rather than the victim of an errant missile or collateral damage from the nearby attack.
The US military has not publicly released its findings on the Minab strike. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the military would never deliberately target civilians.
In Lamerd, Precision Strike Missiles scattered tungsten pellets over a sports complex and nearby residential area, killing at least 21 civilians, including seven children, according to local authorities.
The experts said the sports complex was clearly identifiable and found no evidence that it was being used for military purposes.
They concluded there were reasonable grounds to believe the US carried out the Lamerd strike, citing evidence including the fact that the US was the only party to the conflict known to possess the type of missile they identified.
The US military has denied carrying out any strike on Lamerd that day and disputed reports that a Precision Strike Missile was used.
The fact-finding mission said there were reasonable grounds to believe that in both cases the US committed the war crime of launching an indiscriminate attack resulting in civilian deaths, injuries or damage to civilian objects.
The experts also investigated Iran’s crackdown on mass anti-government protests in December 2025 and January 2026.
They said Iranian security forces killed and injured protesters on an unprecedented scale and carried out widespread arrests across all 31 provinces.
Witnesses, health workers and relatives of victims told the mission that security forces positioned themselves on rooftops and other elevated locations before firing assault rifles into crowds.
The experts also documented severe injuries caused by metal shotgun pellets, including wounds to protesters’ heads, chests and eyes.
They said security forces attacked healthcare facilities, arrested wounded protesters and detained some healthcare workers, discouraging victims from seeking medical treatment.
Tens of thousands of people were detained during the protests, according to the report. The experts said detainees faced torture, solitary confinement and denial of access to lawyers.
They also raised concerns over the use of the death penalty against protesters, saying at least 29 men had been executed after expedited trials linked to the unrest.
The mission said it could not independently verify the overall death toll from the crackdown but found strong grounds to believe it was significantly higher than the government’s figure of 3,000.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency has said it confirmed more than 7,000 deaths, most of them protesters.
The UN experts concluded that Iranian authorities had committed widespread human rights violations that amounted to crimes against humanity, including murder, imprisonment, torture and other inhumane acts.
Iranian authorities have previously rejected allegations of systematic human rights violations. They have accused the US and Israel of fuelling the unrest and blamed deaths during the protests on what they described as terrorists and rioters.
“Civilians in Iran are caught between gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by their own government and the nation’s deadly conflict with the United States and Israel,” the fact-finding mission said.
Erizia Rubyjeana
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