A United Nations fact-finding mission says it has found reasonable grounds to believe that United States military strikes in Iran amounted to war crimes and that Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity in their treatment of civilians.
The findings concern two US strikes carried out in February, including an attack on a school in Minab where more than 150 people, many of them children, were reportedly killed, as well as an attack affecting a sports complex and surrounding civilian areas in Lamerd.
The mission concluded that the attacks raised serious international humanitarian-law concerns over distinction and proportionality.
The same investigation accused Iranian authorities of serious abuses in their response to widespread protests, including killings, torture, arbitrary detention and suppression of fundamental freedoms.
The mission described the alleged conduct by Iranian authorities as forming part of a systematic attack on civilians capable of amounting to crimes against humanity.
The findings are those of the UN fact-finding mission; they are not criminal convictions by an international tribunal.
Neither a UN investigative report nor allegations of international crimes automatically establish individual criminal responsibility. Criminal liability would require proceedings before a competent court or tribunal with jurisdiction over particular suspects and conduct.
Source: Reuters
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