The White House on Thursday sharply rejected allegations from a United Nations-backed investigative mission that American forces committed war crimes in two Feb. 28 strikes in Iran that killed at least 178 civilians, as major disagreements remain over both what happened and, in one case, whether the United States carried out the attack at all.
The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said it had “reasonable grounds to believe” that U.S. forces were responsible for attacks on a primary school in Minab and a sports complex and surrounding area in Lamerd. The panel concluded that the strikes were indiscriminate and therefore constituted war crimes under international law.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly responded by attacking the credibility of the U.N. Human Rights Council, saying it has “accomplished nothing for human rights while spouting unserious nonsense for decades.”
“The only party in this conflict that has committed war crimes is the Iranian regime, which has murdered thousands of its own people, killed Americans overseas, executed acts of terrorism in the Strait of Hormuz, and launched indiscriminate attacks against its neighbors in the region,” Kelly said.
The circumstances surrounding the two strikes cited by the U.N. mission differ significantly, however, and the U.S. government’s position on each is different.
The first involved the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab in southern Iran. Iranian authorities have said 168 people were killed in the strike, most of them children, while the U.N. mission cited figures indicating that more than 120 children were among the dead.
An initial internal U.S. military assessment previously reported by American media indicated that U.S. forces were probably responsible for the Minab strike. According to earlier reporting, outdated intelligence may have led American forces to mistakenly believe the site remained part of an Iranian military installation.
The Pentagon has not publicly released the final results of its investigation. U.S. Central Command commander Adm. Brad Cooper told the House Armed Services Committee in May that the Minab incident “correlated” with a U.S. strike.
President Donald Trump addressed the incident in June, saying the school had not deliberately been targeted.
“Nobody did that on purpose,” President Trump said at the time, adding that “mistakes are made.”
The U.N. investigators reached a different conclusion about the nature of the strike. According to their report, the school itself was “the intended point of impact,” rather than damage caused by an errant weapon or collateral damage from an attack on a nearby Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facility.
The investigators said the school was a clearly identifiable civilian site and that they found no indication that it was being used for military purposes.
“The U.S. failed in its obligation to do everything feasible to verify that it was a military objective,” the mission said.
The second incident, in the southern Iranian city of Lamerd, involves an even more fundamental disagreement.
The U.N. mission attributed to U.S. forces a strike on a sports complex and nearby residential area that killed and wounded 22 civilians and damaged surrounding buildings, including a school.
Investigators said Precision Strike Missiles dispersed tungsten pellets across what they described as a clearly identifiable sports complex and residential neighborhood. The mission concluded that the attack was indiscriminate and constituted a war crime.
U.S. Central Command has denied carrying out the Lamerd strike, saying in March that American forces conducted no strikes inside the city on the day in question.
The dispute over Lamerd therefore extends beyond the U.N. panel’s legal characterization of the attack. The U.N. investigators say American forces were responsible; CENTCOM says they were not.
The Trump administration has maintained that American military operations comply with the law of armed conflict and that U.S. forces do not deliberately target civilians.
The U.N. mission’s report was not limited to accusations against the United States. Investigators also accused the Iranian regime of committing crimes against humanity during its crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in late 2025 and early 2026.
According to the mission, Iranian security forces engaged in unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detention and other abuses during what investigators described as a widespread and systematic attack against civilians.
“The report concluded that many of these gross violations amount to crimes against humanity — including murder, imprisonment, torture, and other inhumane acts committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians,” the U.N. statement said.
The investigators said Iranian forces used assault rifles against crowds, beat demonstrators, detained health-care workers and subjected detainees to torture while in custody. They also pointed to executions and severe restrictions on communications and freedom of expression.
The mission said it based its findings on interviews with 73 people inside and outside Iran, along with satellite imagery, photographs, videos, documentation and information supplied by organizations and experts. Investigators said their work was hampered by the ongoing conflict, internet restrictions and a lack of full cooperation from both Tehran and Washington.
According to the mission, nearly three dozen requests for information sent to the Iranian government went unanswered. Requests made to the U.S. government in June seeking information and meetings with American officials also received no response.
The panel called on both Iran and the United States to halt violations and provide “full reparations to victims.”
The findings themselves do not constitute a criminal conviction, and the fact-finding mission does not have the authority to prosecute the United States, impose criminal penalties or issue a binding legal judgment.
The independent mission was created by the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2022 and is chaired by Bangladeshi jurist Sara Hossain. Its findings can, however, become part of the documentary record used in future efforts to pursue accountability through international legal proceedings.
The report is set to be formally presented to the 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, ensuring that the disputed Feb. 28 strikes — and the sharply conflicting accounts offered by U.N. investigators and the United States — will remain the subject of international scrutiny.
{Matzav.com}