The UN accuses the USA of committing war crimes in Iran

BarcelonaThe UN concludes that the United States committed war crimes in Iran on February 28, the day Washington and Tel Aviv launched the offensive that initiated the war against the ayatollahs. The United Nations mission for the Persian country points to two air strikes to support its accusation: the one that took place against a school in Minab, in the south of the country, in which 120 children died, and a precision missile attack that killed 22 civilians in a sports complex and a residential area in Lamerd, also in the south.

Both targets were "clearly identifiable", the UN maintains in a report presented before the Human Rights Council in Geneva, with which it sees "reasonable grounds" to state that the United States has committed war crimes, wounding or killing civilians with intentionality. All this, in a document that notes that the population lives trapped between the military hostility of the United States and the crimes against humanity of which it accuses Iran.

Regarding the repression by the ayatollahs, the text points to the violent stifling of the protests at the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026, in which nearly 3,500 deaths could be proven, as a turning point. Then, Tehran carried out an unprecedented escalation regarding previous episodes of repression, with widespread use of force and with mass arrests and killings.

The report explains that the killings carried out by the Iranian security forces took place throughout the country, on a "chilling and unprecedented scale" and with special incidence in the provinces of Tehran, Karaj, Mashhad, Isfahan and Rasht. The UN reports that security forces positioned themselves on rooftops and elevated positions to be able to fire assault rifles with precision against the crowds that were protesting. At least 221 children were killed.

The use of the death penalty

The United Nations also emphasizes that the Iranian authorities often delayed or even refused to hand over the bodies of the deceased to their families. In several cases, they report, officials demanded payments, forced relatives to sign false statements claiming that the victims were enemy agents, and restricted or threatened ceremonies in memory of the deceased.

The report also states that after the protests, and with the war involving the United States and Israel already underway, Tehran "intensified" the use of the death penalty against protesters. Between March and August 2026, at least 29 citizens were executed after going through summary trials. Five of these executions, all of detainees from the protests, were carried out in public to strike fear into the population. More than 70 people, including three minors, remain at imminent risk of execution.