Overview
- The Independent International Fact‑Finding Mission on Iran released its report on Sept. 17 and said there are reasonable grounds to believe two February strikes in Minab and Lamerd amounted to indiscriminate attacks that qualify as war crimes.
- Investigators concluded a Tomahawk strike hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab and that the attack killed more than 150 people including many children according to Iranian officials, and they found at least 178 civilian deaths from the two strikes overall.
- The Mission said US planners relied on intelligence that a senior Iranian commander was nearby but failed to re‑verify targeting data or confirm the school was a military objective, and it described the Lamerd strike as using a missile that dispersed tungsten pellets over a populated sports and residential area.
- US officials have not accepted the report’s findings; the Pentagon has an elevated internal probe into the Minab strike and US Central Command has denied responsibility for Lamerd, and both Washington and Tehran offered limited cooperation to investigators.
- The report also documents widespread, systematic abuses by Iranian security forces during late‑2025 protests including killings, torture and enforced disappearances, a finding that heightens calls for reparations, an end to hostilities and renewed diplomatic efforts.