UN Fact-Finding Mission Says US Likely Committed War Crimes in February Strikes That Killed 178 Iranian Civilians

Since Tomahawk and precision missiles hit a primary school and a sports complex in Iran on February 28, killing at least 178 civilians, the Pentagon has run its own internal investigation without releasing a single public finding. On Thursday, September 17, 2026, the UN's Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran filled that silence with its own conclusion: there are "reasonable grounds" to believe the United States committed war crimes.

The mission, chaired by jurist Sara Hossain of Bangladesh and created by the UN Human Rights Council in 2022, examined two strikes carried out the day the US and Israel launched their war against Iran. A Tomahawk missile hit Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab, killing at least 156 people according to Iranian officials, including roughly 120 children, according to the BBC and Al Jazeera. Iranian state media put the death toll at 168, according to NPR. The same day, a strike using a US-made Precision Strike Missile hit a sports complex and residential area in Lamerd, killing 22 to 24 civilians and scattering tungsten pellets, according to the mission's report cited by The Hill.

What the Mission Says It Found

On Minab, the mission says it relied on the type of weapon used, corroborated reports that a preliminary US military inquiry found US forces responsible, a statement from the US Central Command commander that the strike "correlates" with a US operation, and the simple fact that the US is the only party in the conflict that possesses Tomahawk missiles, according to The Hill and the BBC.

Investigators say the school was unmistakably a school: child-oriented murals, signage, a playground, and satellite imagery reportedly showing children gathered in the courtyard before impact, according to Al Jazeera. Survivors told investigators the building was struck twice, which the mission says rules out the strike being stray damage from a nearby attack on an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval complex, according to the BBC.

On intent, the mission's report goes further than simple error. It says the US acted on intelligence claiming a senior Iranian commander was present but failed to adequately verify that before firing, and that failing to refresh outdated targeting data "amounted to more than mere negligence," according to The Guardian. The report states the US "directed the strikes at the building of the school while being aware of a substantial risk of striking a civilian object and acting recklessly as regards the possibility that this would happen," per the same report cited by The Guardian and Times of India.

On Lamerd, investigators say video analysis of the missile's nose cone, fuselage and tail fins, along with the airburst pattern of the detonation, is consistent with a US Precision Strike Missile, according to The Hill.

The US Response

Central Command said in March that US forces did not fire missiles at Lamerd that day, a denial the mission's report directly contradicts. The Pentagon told The Hill it does not comment on outside investigations and that its own inquiry into Minab "remains ongoing," with "nothing to announce at the moment." That status has been unchanged since strikes happened seven months ago.

President Trump said in June that "nobody" purposely attacked the girls' school, pointing to that same unfinished investigation, according to The Guardian. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly issued a blunt rebuttal to the UN findings Thursday, saying the Human Rights Council "has accomplished nothing for human rights while spouting unserious nonsense for decades," and argued Iran is "the only party in this conflict that has committed war crimes," citing the regime's killing of its own people, alleged killing of Americans overseas, and attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, according to NPR.

The Human Rights Council includes member states with their own poor human rights records, and a non-binding fact-finding mission isn't a court verdict. The report itself is advisory. NPR notes it isn't binding but could eventually feed into international justice efforts.

Iran Isn't Clean Either

The same mission found Iranian security forces committed crimes against humanity during the crackdown on anti-government protests that began in late December, describing killings "on a staggering and unprecedented scale" across all 31 provinces, according to the BBC. Iran has not responded to the new findings but has previously rejected allegations of systematic rights violations.

The diplomatic freeze around all of this hasn't thawed. The State Department confirmed Thursday it approved visas for Iran's "core delegation" — President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi — to attend next week's UN General Assembly session in New York, even with no ceasefire, no reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and no nuclear talks in sight, according to CBS News. The same day, the Treasury Department sanctioned the crypto platform Bitbank, tied to sanctioned financier Babak Zanjani, as part of its Operation Economic Outcast campaign against Iranian sanctions evasion.

The unresolved question is the Pentagon's own probe. Reuters has previously reported a preliminary internal military inquiry pointed toward US responsibility for the Minab strike, but the department has released nothing public in the seven months since. Whether that investigation's findings, if ever disclosed, match the UN mission's conclusions remains to be seen.