UN investigation into the Iran war: UN mission accuses the USA of war crimes

Reuters | A UN commission of inquiry accuses the USA of possible war crimes in Iran and the leadership in Tehran of crimes against humanity. There are sufficient reasons to believe that the US was responsible for two military strikes against a school and a sports facility in Iran in February, said the independent UN mission for Iran. These attacks are war crimes.

In addition, the Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity in the violent suppression of anti-government protests from the end of December, according to the report, which is to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday. The Iranian representation in Geneva did not initially respond to inquiries from the Reuters news agency. The US government rejected the allegations on Thursday.

The White House responded with sharp criticism. The UN body “has achieved nothing for human rights,” said spokeswoman Anna Kelly. Iran is the only party in the current conflict that has committed war crimes. The US Department of Defense declined to comment on the report from an outside organization. “Our investigation is ongoing and we have nothing to announce at this time,” the Pentagon said.

The UN missions are investigative bodies and not judicial authorities. However, their findings can be incorporated into criminal investigations by national courts or international tribunals such as the International Criminal Court. The UN mission's report examines the US's actions in the Iran war that has been going on since February and the government's response in Tehran to the nationwide unrest.

According to the UN experts, there are sufficient reasons to believe that US forces were responsible for an attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in the southern Iranian city of Minab. According to Iranian information, more than 160 people were killed, around 120 of them school children. This is a reckless attack on civilians and civilian infrastructure, which constitutes a war crime under international law. According to the report, the school was next to a naval base of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. However, the UN experts found no evidence that the school was used for military purposes.

The US's failure to update the relevant information in its target databases and to verify whether the building was a military target went beyond mere negligence. “Rather, the United States directed the attacks against the school building despite recognizing the significant risk of hitting a civilian object and recklessly accepting that this could happen,” the report said.

US President Donald Trump said in June, citing an investigation, that no one intentionally attacked a girls' school in Iran in February. Shortly after the attack itself, Trump accused Iran of bombing the educational institution. The Pentagon has since moved the investigation to a higher level, but has not yet released preliminary results.

The commission came to a similar conclusion in an attack on a sports center in Lamerd in which 22 civilians were killed or injured. US Central Command said in March that US forces had not carried out any strikes against Lamerd that day. US officials have said in the past that military operations were consistent with international law.

With regard to human rights violations in Iran, the UN mission noted that the authorities there had systematically taken action against civilians during the protests from the end of December. These included unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances. Human rights groups say innocent bystanders were killed in the most serious crackdown on protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Tehran blames U.S.- and Israeli-backed “terrorists” and insurgents for the unrest. The UN commission was unable to independently verify the number of victims, but assumes that the actual number of victims is far higher than the official figures of 3,038 dead and 25,000 injured. The government's response, including the shutdown of the Internet and the use of the death penalty, represents a significant escalation in the suppression of dissent.

Iran has always rejected allegations of systematic human rights violations.