UN Human Rights Council says US may have committed war crime in Iran strikes

Report also documents Iran crimes against humanity against protesters

The United Nations Human Rights Council published a report Thursday alleging that the United States may have committed a war crime in its attacks on Iran, and that Iran separately committed crimes against humanity against its own civilian protesters.

The report said that after the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, UN investigators 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 investigators cited two specific strikes. Tomahawk missiles struck the “clearly identifiable Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab — which killed over 150 people, including approximately 120 girls and boys,” the report said. In a separate strike, Precision Strike Missiles “dispersed clouds of tungsten pellets over a clearly identifiable sports complex and residential area in Lamerd, killing 22 civilian men and women,” according to the UN findings.

The UN mission urged Iran and the United States to “immediately cease all violations and crimes, provide full reparations to victims and guarantee non-repetition,” and called on both sides to end hostilities and renew diplomatic actions for peace.

In March, senators on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanding answers on the attack. It was later said that the school was hit due to outdated intelligence. President Donald Trump said, “In my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran.”

On Thursday, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., introduced a resolution to impeach Hegseth in part for ignoring laws that minimize civilian casualties. House Speaker Mike Johnson shut down the House session early in order to avoid voting on the measure.

The UN report also addressed Iran’s domestic record, finding that Iranian authorities committed gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity in a violent crackdown on civilian protesters. The fact-finding mission said tens of thousands of people were “deprived of their liberty in large-scale arbitrary arrests and detention,” with detainees facing “torture, solitary confinement and denial of legal counsel,” while families were left in the dark about the whereabouts of their loved ones “in circumstances raising concerns of enforced disappearances.”

The report added that “Iranian authorities compounded the suffering of families by delaying or refusing to release bodies. In multiple cases, officials demanded payments, forced relatives to sign false statements claiming that the victims were State agents, and restricted or threatened memorial and mourning ceremonies.”