UN mission finds grounds to believe US committed war crimes in Iran

A United Nations fact-finding mission on Iran announced on Thursday that it had found reasonable grounds to believe the United States was responsible for two military strikes carried out in February against a school and a sports facility inside Iran.

According to the mission, these strikes met the threshold to be classified as war crimes. The findings did not include further detail on the precise methodology behind the conclusion or the specific consequences of the strikes themselves.

Findings on Iran's own conduct

Alongside its examination of the US strikes, the mission also assessed the conduct of Iranian authorities. It concluded that Iran's government committed crimes against humanity in connection with a deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters.

The report therefore places scrutiny simultaneously on two separate actors — a foreign military power and the domestic government — over serious violations of international law occurring in the same period and region.

France 24 journalist Kethevane Gorjestani examined the report's findings in further detail. No official response from either the US or Iranian governments to the mission's conclusions has been reported so far.