UN team says US attack in Iran killed about 120 schoolchildren and may be a war crime

A United Nations team that checks possible crimes says the United States may have committed war crimes, serious crimes against the rules of war, in two attacks in Iran in February. One attack hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab. More than 150 people died, including about 120 schoolchildren, Iranian officials said. The school was next to a base of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, but the team found no evidence it was used by soldiers. So the attack was indiscriminate, meaning it did not care who it hit, and that is a war crime.

A second attack on a sports centre in Lamerd damaged homes and a school and killed or injured 22 civilians. The team called it indiscriminate too, so it was also a war crime.

The same report looked at Iran's answer to protests that began in late December. It found a wide and planned attack on civilians, called a crime against humanity. This included unlawful killings, torture, and limits on what people could say. Official numbers say 3,038 people were killed and 25,000 injured, but the experts said the real numbers are likely much higher. Iran's government blamed "terrorists and rioters" supported by exiles and foreign enemies.

The report will go to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday. The team asked the United States and Iran to stop breaking the rules and give full reparations to victims, meaning pay them back. The team cannot bring criminal cases itself, but courts, including the International Criminal Court, can use its findings.