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

• It also finds Iran's 'violent repression of 2025-2026 protests' marked by 'widespread use of lethal force resulting in mass killings, injuries, extensive arrests'

A UN fact-finding mission found on Thursday that the US committed war crimes during airstrikes on Iran, causing the death of civilians, injuries, and damage to civilian objects in Iran.

The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran issued a report, finding reasonable grounds to believe that the US committed war crimes "during a pair of airstrikes which killed at least 178 civilians, including women and children."

The mission noted that the war crimes included "launching indiscriminate attacks resulting in the loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects," during the US and Israeli attacks in February.

The cited attacks involved Tomahawk missile strikes on a primary school in Minab, which killed over 150 and another airstrike where Precision Strike Missiles dispersed clouds of tungsten pellets over a sports complex and residential area in Lamerd, killing 22 civilians.

"Civilians in Iran are caught between gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by their own Government and the nation’s deadly conflict with the United States and Israel," the mission said.

The report also concluded that the Iranian government's "violent repression of the 2025-2026 protests marked an unprecedented escalation from past crackdowns, marked by the widespread use of lethal force resulting in mass killings and injuries, and extensive arrests."

It also criticized the government's imposition of a nationwide internet and communications blackout in January, during the height of protests.

The mission "urged Iran and the US to immediately cease all violations and crimes, provide full reparations to victims, and guarantee non-repetition."

It also called for an "immediate end to hostilities, renewed diplomatic action by all Member States for permanent peace, and third-state accountability through universal jurisdiction."