UN Report: Solid Evidence That the United States Violated International Law Through Unintentional Strikes in Iran
The United Nations has concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the US government committed a war crime in the early days of the military conflict between the US and Israel against Iran. This assessment comes from a fact-finding mission that analysed two distinct incidents: the bombing of an elementary school in Minab and the attack on a sports centre in the southern city of Lamerd. The official document, published on Thursday, stresses that US military actions caused significant civilian casualties and destruction of civilian objects, meeting the criteria for an indiscriminate attack. Although this report is not a judicial ruling, it has been transmitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva for examination within international procedures.
In the tragic case of the Minab school, collected data indicate that the explosion caused the death of at least 150 people. Of this alarming number, approximately 120 victims were children, underscoring the severity of the human impact of the strike. The detailed investigation showed that the educational institution’s building was directly targeted by a Tomahawk-type missile. The strike was part of a series of attacks carried out on an adjacent base belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Contrary to initial hypotheses, UN investigators ruled out the idea that the missile was a „misfire” or that the damage was an unintended collateral effect of the attack on the neighbouring military base. The distance between the school and the nearest IRGC facility was approximately 72 metres, a critical proximity that was ignored in planning.
According to the technical analysis presented in the report, the intended point of impact was precisely the school building. The authors of the document categorically state that the educational structure was the primary target, and the damage suffered cannot be attributed to an accidental strike or collateral damage deriving from the operation against the IRGC complex. Sources cited by The New York Times revealed that officers from US Central Command (CENTCOM) established the target coordinates using outdated data provided by the US Defence Intelligence Agency. This failure to update information appears to be the fundamental cause of the tragedy. Although US investigators involved in the internal inquiry acknowledged that the US military is likely responsible for the incident, the administration led by President Donald Trump attempted to minimise its own responsibility, shifting blame onto other entities or circumstances.
Second Incident Analysed by the UN Mission Took Place in the City of Lamerd, Located in Southern Iran
Here, another US attack struck a sports complex and a residential area, described in the document as „clearly identifiable”. The New York Times revealed in March that, to hit the sports hall, the US used in combat a ballistic missile that had not previously been tested under such conditions. The Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) precision mission operates through a unique mechanism: the missile explodes immediately above the target, releasing thousands of tungsten projectiles that spread over a wide area.
UN investigators concluded that the choice to use this type of missile in a densely populated civilian area, under the prevailing conditions, constituted negligence regarding the probable extent of deaths or injuries. The report stresses that the weapon system dispersed approximately 180,000 tungsten projectiles in an area with many civilians. From the perspective of international law, the attack could not be directed exclusively at a specific military objective, and its effects on persons and civilian property could not be appropriately limited. Thus, US actions violated the principle of distinction, an essential component of international humanitarian law, which obliges belligerent parties to differentiate between military targets and civilian ones.
The fact-finding mission defined the strikes as „indiscriminate”, thereby placing them in the category of war crimes under international law. Although the document does not establish a penalty, it provides a solid basis for continuing the accountability process at the international level. The incidents in Minab and Lamerd remain symbolic in highlighting the human costs of using advanced military technology in densely populated urban areas, where calculation errors or tactical choices can have devastating consequences for the local population. This detailed analysis reconfirms the importance of transparency and rigour in planning military operations that affect the territory of a sovereign state.