Iran school bombing: grounds to believe US was behind atrocity, UN finds

Iran school bombing: grounds to believe US was behind atrocity, UN finds

Fact-finding mission says military strikes on school and sports facility in ⁠February constitute war ⁠crimes

A UN fact-finding mission has determined there are reasonable grounds to believe the US was behind military strikes on a school and a sports facility in Iran in ⁠February that killed 120 children, and that these constituted war ⁠crimes.

The school strike, which killed 156 civilians including 120 children, involved a US Tomahawk missile that collapsed the roof of the Shajareh Tayyebehprimary school, which the UN said was “clearly identifiable”, in Minab, Hormozgan province, on 28 February.

The Pentagon’s own secretive investigation into the incident is understood to have concluded several months ago amid reports that senior US commanders had been warned targeting data used during the war – including for the Minab strike – was dangerously outdated.

The second cited strike, on the same date, targeted a “clearly identifiable sports complex and residential area” in the southern city of Lamerd with a weapon that scattered tungsten pellets.

The UN fact-finding team said in a statement: “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 mission also found Iranian ​authorities committed crimes against humanity during their deadly crackdown on anti-government protests.

The findings by the independent international fact-finding mission on Iran, to be submitted to the UN human rights council in Geneva, examined the ⁠US’s conduct during the Iran war that began in February and the Iranian government’s response to nationwide unrest that began in late December.

US officials have previously said military ⁠operations are conducted in accordance with the law of armed conflict, while Iran has consistently rejected allegations of systematic rights violations.

The UN mission concluded that the strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school constituted an indiscriminate attack causing civilian deaths and damage to ‌civilian infrastructure, amounting to a war crime under international law.

According to the report, the US relied on intelligence suggesting a senior Iranian military commander was present at the site but failed to adequately verify the information before launching the strike.

Investigators said the failure to update targeting intelligence and confirm the building was a military objective amounted to more than mere negligence.

“Rather, the US directed the strikes at the building of the school while being aware of a substantial risk of striking a civilian object and acting recklessly as regards the possibility that this would happen.”

In June the US president, Donald Trump, said ‌“nobody” had purposely attacked a girls’ school in Iran in February, citing an investigation into the incident.

The Pentagon has since elevated ​the inquiry but it has not published any preliminary findings.

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

The experts reached a similar conclusion over the strike on the sports centre in Lamerd. The report said the attack damaged nearby residential buildings and a school and killed and injured 22 civilians. It concluded that the strike was indiscriminate and therefore constituted a war crime.

US Central Command said in a statement in March that ⁠US forces did not launch any strikes into the city of Lamerd on that day.

The UN mission found ​that the Iranian authorities carried out a widespread and systematic ​attack against civilians during protests that erupted in late ​December last year, involving unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and severe restrictions on freedom of expression.

Rights groups say bystanders were among ​those killed during the biggest crackdown ‌since Shia Muslim clerics took ​power in the 1979 revolution. Tehran blamed “terrorists ​and rioters” backed by exiled opponents and the US and Israel.

The investigation said it could not independently verify the death toll, but that it believed the number of dead and injured was probably far higher than official figures, which say 3,038 people were killed and 25,000 people injured.

The government’s response to the protests, including violence and killings, cutting off the internet and use of the death penalty, marked a significant escalation from previous patterns of suppressing dissent, the report said.

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