United Nations says US may have committed war crimes in Iran: What it means
UN probe finds US unlawfully struck an Iranian school and sports centre, killing children; White House rejects findings.
A United Nations-mandated fact-finding mission has concluded that the United States may have committed war crimes when it carried out two strikes on Iran in February 2026 – one on a primary school in Minab, the other on a sports complex in Lamerd.
The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran submitted its findings to the UN Human Rights Council after months of investigation into the February strikes, when the US and Israel began the war on Iran amid stalled nuclear negotiations. It concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe the US acted “recklessly” in the strikes.
Neither Washington nor Israel granted the mission access to personnel or responded to its requests for information, so investigators relied, instead, on satellite imagery, verified video, weapons analysis and witness accounts from Iranian sources and independent organisations.
“The only party in this conflict that has committed war crimes is the Iranian regime, which has murdered thousands of its own people, killed Americans overseas, executed acts of terrorism in the Strait of Hormuz, and launched indiscriminate attacks against its neighbours in the region,” she added.