UN experts treat the Minab school strike as a US war crime
An independent UN-backed fact-finding mission says it has reasonable grounds to believe US forces were behind a strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab and a sports-centre strike. Iranian officials put the Minab dead at more than 150 people, including around 120 schoolchildren. Those are the mission's findings for the Human Rights Council, not a court judgment. The Trump administration has not accepted blame, ABC News notes.
Geopolitics··Evening
Reasonable grounds, not a verdict
The Guardian reports the independent fact-finding mission on Iran said it had reasonable grounds to believe US forces were behind two February strikes on a school and a sports facility. ABC News says UN-commissioned experts found reasonable grounds the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran, including on a school in Minab. Both present the language as the mission's legal characterisation for the Human Rights Council in Geneva, not a court judgment.[1], [2]
Minab's school and Lamerd's sports centre
The mission, as reported by the Guardian and ABC News, named an attack on Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab, Hormozgan, as an indiscriminate attack amounting to a war crime. Iranian officials put the dead at more than 150 people, including around 120 schoolchildren. The Guardian says the mission reached a similar finding on a sports-centre strike in Lamerd that it said killed or injured 22 civilians. ABC also records the sports-centre strike beside the school.[1], [2]
Washington has not accepted blame
The Guardian notes US Central Command said in March that US forces did not strike Lamerd that day. ABC News says the Trump administration has yet to directly accept blame or release findings of a Pentagon investigation into the school bombing, and that US officials have previously said military operations are conducted in accordance with the law of armed conflict. The mission also said Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity in a protest crackdown, both papers report.[1], [2]
