As the war in Iran draws deeper international scrutiny, U.N.-mandated investigators are now tying one of the conflict’s deadliest civilian incidents to a possible war-crimes finding. At the center of that assessment is a strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab, a city in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, where investigators say the school itself was the intended point of impact. The finding was made public Thursday, September 17, by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran.
U.N. investigators put the Minab school strike at the center of the case
The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said it found “reasonable grounds” to believe the United States committed war crimes in two February 28 strikes in Iran, according to reporting by The Associated Press on the mission’s findings. The report centers in part on a U.S. missile strike that hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab and on a separate strike in Lamerd. Investigators said the two attacks together killed at least 178 civilians, including women and children, based on the mission’s published findings summarized by AP.
The school strike in Minab accounts for the overwhelming share of the reported deaths. Iranian state media have said 168 people were killed there, most of them children, while Amnesty International previously said 156 people were killed, including 120 children. The U.N.-backed experts concluded the school building was the intended point of impact, not accidental spillover from an attack on a nearby Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps compound, AP reported.
The mission said one other February 28 strike involved Precision Strike Missiles that spread tungsten pellets over a sports complex and residential area in Lamerd, killing 22 civilians. U.S. Central Command has denied responsibility for the Lamerd strike, according to AP. The Trump administration has not publicly accepted responsibility for the Minab school attack or released the findings of a Pentagon investigation referenced in the AP report.
What is confirmed is that Minab, in Hormozgan province, is now a focal point of the U.N. inquiry into civilian harm in Iran. AP reported that at least one U.S. missile hit the school at the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran in February, and that U.N. investigators later determined the site was clearly identifiable as a civilian object. That puts a specific city and school campus, not a broad battlefield allegation, at the center of the international finding.
What is not yet known is the final death toll from the Minab attack. AP reported there has been no final accounting of what happened at the school, even as Iranian state media and rights groups have published casualty estimates. The United States also has not released a public investigative summary that would clarify targeting decisions, weapon use, or whether any internal disciplinary or legal review followed.
The uncertainty matters because the U.N. report is not a court ruling. AP noted that the findings are not binding, but they add to an evidentiary record that could later be used in international legal proceedings. For residents of southern Iran, that means the attack on a school in Hormozgan has moved from a local tragedy to a documented case in an international accountability process.
The Minab strike is significant because the new U.N. report does more than assess one attack. The fact-finding mission also said Iran’s government committed gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity against its own people, including murder, imprisonment, torture and other inhumane acts, according to AP’s account of the report. That makes the Minab finding part of a wider document examining conduct by both the United States and Iranian authorities.
The mission said it relied on a victims-centered investigation that included interviews with 73 people inside and outside Iran, plus satellite imagery, photos, videos and information from what it described as credible organizations and experts. Investigators also said their work was impeded by displacement, an internet shutdown and limited cooperation from both governments. AP reported that nearly three dozen requests for information to Iran went unanswered, and that June requests to the U.S. government for information and meetings also did not produce cooperation.
For readers following what comes next, the practical point is that the September 17 report does not itself impose penalties, but it formalizes an allegation that could shape future diplomatic and legal action. The fact-finding mission is expected to present its findings to the U.N. Human Rights Council, where the Minab school strike is likely to remain one of the report’s most scrutinized episodes.