UN accuses US of war crimes, Iran of crimes against humanity

The UN’s Iran investigation mission said in a report published today that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe the United States committed war crimes in two attacks at the start of the war against Iranian territory. It also accused Iran of possible crimes against humanity for its violent crackdown on protests before the conflict. The report will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council. The mission, made up of three international experts, identified alleged US war crimes in bombings on February 28, the first day of hostilities, against a girls’ school in Minab and a residential area in Lamerd, both in southern Iran. In the Minab attack, which killed more than 150 people, including about 120 children, the US “committed the war crime of launching an indiscriminate attack resulting in death or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects,” the report said. In the Lamerd bombing, “precision missiles spread clouds of tungsten pellets over a clearly identifiable sports complex and residential area and killed 22 civilians,” according to the study. The mission was created in 2022 to examine Iran’s repressive excesses, and its mandate was extended for another two years last January. The report says the mission “found that state security forces committed killings on an alarming scale in all 31 provinces.” The highest death tolls were recorded in Tehran, Karaj, Mashhad, Isfahan and Rasht. “Security forces positioned themselves on rooftops and other elevated positions, firing assault rifles at the crowd. In Karaj, they fired tear gas to corner protesters in narrow alleys before shooting them. Protesters suffered severe head, chest and eye injuries from metal shotgun pellets, causing permanent blindness,” the report said. At least 221 children were killed, according to information cited in the report, some as young as two years old. Security forces also attacked health centers, beat and detained injured protesters and some health workers, which discouraged victims from seeking vital medical care, it said. The experts said they cannot determine the exact death toll from the protests, but have solid grounds to believe it was much higher than the 3,038 the government admitted in February. The document says the conclusions are based on information gathered from interviews with 73 people (39 men, 32 women and two children), including members of Iran’s ethnic and religious minorities, both inside and outside the country. It also collected satellite images, video and photographic material, and information from reliable human rights organizations and forensic, military and other experts.