United Nations human rights experts have said there are reasonable grounds to believe that the United States committed war crimes in two separate strikes in Iran that killed at least 177 civilians, including more than 120 children.
The allegation is contained in a new report by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, which was presented to the UN Human Rights Council.
According to the report, two US strikes carried out on February 28 targeted a primary school in Minab and a sports complex in Lamerd, resulting in significant civilian deaths and damage to civilian infrastructure.
The experts concluded that the attacks constituted indiscriminate attacks against civilian objects, and said there were reasonable grounds to believe that the strikes amounted to war crimes under international humanitarian law.
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The United States has rejected the findings.
A US State Department official said Washington did not give credibility to the conclusions of the fact-finding mission, while the US military has previously denied carrying out a strike on Lamerd and said it was investigating the Minab incident.
156 Killed at Minab School
The first incident occurred on February 28, when US and Israeli military operations against Iran began.
Tomahawk missiles struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab, southern Iran, killing at least 156 people, including 120 children, according to local authorities.
The UN experts said the school was located close to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval complex that was also attacked on the same day.
However, investigators said the school was clearly identifiable as a civilian facility and found no information indicating that it was being used for military purposes.
The mission said evidence gathered during its investigation, including media reports about a preliminary US military inquiry, gave it reasonable grounds to believe that the United States was responsible for the attack.
The experts also pointed to the fact that the United States was the only party involved in the conflict known to possess Tomahawk missiles.
According to the report, investigators found that the school itself appeared to have been the intended point of impact rather than an accidental or collateral casualty of an attack on the nearby IRGC facility.
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Survivors reportedly told investigators that the school was struck twice.
The US military has not publicly released the findings of its investigation into the Minab incident.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has previously maintained that American forces would “never target civilian targets.”
21 Civilians Killed in Lamerd
The second incident occurred in Lamerd, where the UN mission said US-made Precision Strike Missiles, or PrSMs, dispersed tungsten pellets over a sports complex and nearby residential areas.
At least 21 civilians, including seven children, were reportedly killed, according to local authorities.
The investigators said the sports complex was clearly identifiable as a civilian facility and that they found no evidence indicating that it was being used for military purposes.
They again concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe the United States carried out the attack, citing evidence including the type of missile allegedly used.
The US military, however, has denied carrying out strikes on Lamerd on that date and has disputed reports identifying the weapon involved as a PrSM missile.
UN Experts Raise War-Crimes Concern
After examining evidence from both incidents, the fact-finding mission said there were reasonable grounds to believe that the United States committed the war crime of launching an indiscriminate attack resulting in the death or injury of civilians or damage to civilian objects.
The wording represents the investigators’ legal assessment based on the evidence available to them and does not constitute a criminal conviction by a court.
The report comes amid a wider and increasingly deadly conflict involving Iran, the United States and Israel, with civilians facing significant risks from both military operations and internal repression.
“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 warned.
Iran Accused of Crimes Against Humanity
The UN report also accused Iranian authorities of committing serious human rights violations during the mass anti-government protests that spread across the country in December 2025 and January 2026.
The investigators described the crackdown as an unprecedented escalation compared with previous periods of unrest.
They said security forces used lethal force on a widespread scale, resulting in large numbers of deaths and injuries across all 31 provinces.
Witnesses, healthcare workers and relatives of victims reportedly told investigators that security personnel positioned themselves on rooftops and other elevated locations and fired assault rifles into crowds.
Other protesters reportedly suffered serious injuries to the head, chest and eyes after being struck by metal shotgun pellets, with some victims suffering permanent blindness.
The mission also accused Iranian security forces of targeting medical facilities and healthcare workers.
According to the report, wounded demonstrators were allegedly beaten and arrested in healthcare facilities, while some medical workers were also detained. The investigators said the crackdown deterred some injured protesters from seeking potentially life-saving medical treatment.
Thousands Detained, Torture Alleged
The investigators said tens of thousands of people were detained during the protests.
Those detained allegedly faced torture, solitary confinement and denial of access to legal counsel.
The report further warned that Iranian authorities had intensified the use of the death penalty against protesters.
At least 29 men were reportedly executed following expedited trials on charges connected to the unrest.
The UN mission acknowledged that it had been unable to independently verify the overall death toll from the protests.
Iranian authorities have officially put the number of deaths at around 3,000, with the government identifying many of those killed as security personnel or bystanders.
However, the UN experts said there were strong grounds to believe the actual death toll was significantly higher.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has separately reported that it confirmed the deaths of more than 7,000 people, most of whom it identified as protesters.
Iran Yet to Respond
The Iranian government has not yet publicly responded to the latest findings of the UN fact-finding mission.
Iran has previously rejected allegations of systematic human rights violations and has accused the United States and Israel of helping to foment unrest inside the country.
Iranian authorities have also blamed deaths during the protests on individuals they described as “terrorists” and “rioters.”
The UN experts nevertheless concluded that Iranian authorities were responsible for numerous serious violations that, in their assessment, amounted to crimes against humanity, including murder, imprisonment, torture and other inhumane acts committed as part of what they described as a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population.
The report places renewed international scrutiny on both the conduct of the US-led military campaign and the Iranian government’s response to domestic protests, as questions over civilian protection and accountability continue to dominate the international response to the conflict.
