DOMINANT ANGLE
The United States government rejects the conclusions of the UN report outright, with the White House attributing responsibility for the war crimes to Iran, while an internal assessment suggests a targeting error rather than an intentional strike.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
The UN mission says it has "reasonable grounds" to believe that US forces committed the war crime of indiscriminate attacks in the strike on Minab school (over 150 dead according to the cited count) and the one on the sports complex and residential neighborhood of Lamerd (22 civilians killed).
- 02
The State Department rejected all credibility of the report, accusing the UN Human Rights Council of "pushing anti-American and anti-Semitic rhetoric"; the White House stated that "the only party in this conflict that has committed war crimes is the Iranian regime".
- 03
A preliminary US assessment judged US forces "probably" responsible for the school strike but without intent to target it, citing outdated intelligence, according to a source quoted by CBS News.
ANALYSIS
Washington, Friday, September 18, 2026. The Pentagon and the White House rejected outright on Thursday, September 17, 2026, the conclusions of the International Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, mandated by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The report claims to have "reasonable grounds" to believe that American forces committed the war crime of launching indiscriminate attacks during two strikes in February: the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in Minab, where over 150 people were killed according to the cited count, and a sports complex and residential neighborhood in Lamerd, where 22 civilians died.
A State Department official dismissed the credibility of the text, accusing the Human Rights Council of "pushing anti-American and anti-Semitic rhetoric" and "appeasing repressive regimes," according to CNBC. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly, quoted by the Associated Press, was even more direct: "The only party in this conflict that has committed war crimes is the Iranian regime." Washington had already left the Human Rights Council by presidential decree from Donald Trump in February 2025; the mission said it had sought American cooperation without receiving a response.
The American press nonetheless notes a nuance that Washington has not publicly claimed. CBS News reports that a preliminary internal assessment judged American forces "probably" responsible for the Minab strike, without intending to target the school, possibly due to outdated intelligence that still classified the area as part of an Iranian military installation. In June, Trump himself stated that "nobody did this intentionally" and that "mistakes are made," according to Axios. In May, Admiral Brad Cooper, from Central Command, told the House that the Minab attack "corresponded" to an American strike.
CENTCOM continues to deny any responsibility for the strike on the Lamerd sports complex. Neither the White House nor the Pentagon has acknowledged responsibility or published the conclusions of a Pentagon investigation into the school attack, which was opened on the first day of the war. The case also revives a documented fracture among Republicans over the conduct of the conflict, while the president continues to assure that Tehran wants an agreement to end it.
SOURCES (5)
- NPRMEDIUM
- CNBCMEDIUM
- NBC News WorldMEDIUM
- AxiosMEDIUM
- CBS News WorldMEDIUM
