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

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

GENEVA (AP) — Human rights experts commissioned by the U.N.’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 Thursday.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 U.N.’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 U.N. member countries.The team says the US launched ‘indiscriminate’ attacksThe international fact-finding mission says its findings on U.S.

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 28 February, 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 U.N. statement about the team's findings said.The U.S.

State Department did not immediately respond to a request from The Associated Press 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 U.N.-backed team based its allegations on two strikes — one involving To…