UN-backed experts cite possible US war crimes in Iran strikes

GENEVA (AP):

Experts commissioned by the UN’s top human rights body say they have found “reasonable grounds” to believe the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran, including on a school in the southern city of Minab.

They also accuse Iran’s theocratic government of carrying out crimes against humanity against its own people in a report published yesterday.

The report, while not binding, adds to international evidence gathered about crimes in the war in Iran, and could eventually be used in efforts to reach justice in international courts.

The fact-finding mission on Iran, chaired by jurist Sara Hossain of Bangladesh, is made up of independent experts and was created in 2022 by the Human Rights Council, the UN’s top human rights body, which is based in Geneva.

The experts were expected to present their findings on Monday to the council, which is made up of 47 UN member countries.

The White House issued a scathing statement in response, with spokeswoman Anna Kelly saying the human rights body has “accomplished nothing for human rights while spouting unserious nonsense for decades”.

“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,” Kelly said.

‘INDISCRIMINATE’ ATTACKS

The international fact-finding mission says its findings on US war crimes centre on a pair of US airstrikes that killed at least 178 civilians, including women and children.

At the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran in February, at least one US missile hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab, according to an Associated Press investigation. There has been no final accounting of what happened.

Iranian state media have said 168 people were killed in the strike, most of them children.

“Following the United States and Israeli attacks on February 28, 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,” a UN statement about the team’s findings said.

The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

In their report, the experts concluded that “the building of the school was the intended point of impact” and the resulting damage wasn’t the result of an errant strike or collateral damage from an attack on a compound of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard next to the school.

The Trump administration has yet to directly accept responsibility or release the findings of a Pentagon investigation into the school bombing.

The UN-backed team based its allegations on two strikes — one involving Tomahawk missiles that hit the “clearly identifiable” school, and another in which Precision Strike Missiles dispersed tungsten pellets over a “clearly identifiable sports complex and residential area” in the southern city of Lamerd.

The team said 22 civilian men and women were killed. US Central Command has denied responsibility for the strike on Lamerd.

‘CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY’

The team found that killings by state security forces in Iran have occurred on a “staggering scale”, and civilians faced “gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by their own government”.

Iranian security forces carried out “violent repression” over the last two years by firing assault rifles into crowds, beating protesters and arresting healthcare workers, among other things, the team said. Detainees faced torture and were deprived of legal counsel, leaving their families “in the dark” about their whereabouts, the experts said.

The Tehran government intensified the use of the death penalty and said more than 70 people – including five women and three boys – remain at “imminent risk of execution,” they added.

“The report concluded that many of these gross violations amount to crimes against humanity — including murder, imprisonment, torture, and other inhumane acts committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians,” the statement said.

The experts said the United States and Iran should halt all rights violations and crimes and provide “full reparations to victims”.

The report, built on a “victims-centred approach”, was based on interviews with 73 people both inside and outside Iran, along with documentation, satellite imagery, photographic and video material and information from “credible” organisations and experts, the experts wrote.

The ongoing conflict that has driven people from their homes in Iran, as well as an Internet shutdown and a lack of full cooperation from the two governments partially impeded the team’s efforts to get information.