A United Nations investigation said the US may have committed war crimes in two February 28, 2026, strikes in Iran that killed 177 civilians, while also finding that the Iranian regime committed crimes against humanity during its deadly crackdown on nationwide protests in January.
The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran examined missile strikes on a primary school in Minab and a sports complex in Lamerd that killed 177 people, many of them children.
“No information indicates that the school was used for military purposes at the time,” the UN report found. “The US failed in its obligation to do everything feasible to verify that it was a military objective.”
Evidence at the time indicated that outdated intelligence was responsible for the school strike, with the US intending to hit a neighboring Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval base, sources said.
Washington denied striking Lamerd and said it was launching a probe into what happened in Minab.
Responding to the UN findings, a US State Department official told CNN that the Trump administration did not consider the report credible. The official noted that President Donald Trump formally withdrew the US from the UN Human Rights Council in February 2025, weeks after taking office, accusing the body of antisemitism.
Iran has not responded to the UN report.
Investigators separately examined the Iranian government’s response to anti-government demonstrations that erupted nationwide in early January 2026. Security forces used live ammunition against protesters during a violent crackdown that killed thousands.
Iranian authorities also imposed a sweeping internet blackout, preventing information about the extent of the killings from reaching the outside world.
The investigation found that the “gross violations amount to crimes against humanity,” describing the Iranian government’s crackdown as “a widespread and systematic attack on civilians.”
