{"id":47099,"date":"2026-03-09T11:30:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T18:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=47099"},"modified":"2026-03-09T11:30:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T18:30:22","slug":"rights-group-says-massacre-at-iranian-school-likely-by-us-should-be-investigated-as-war-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/03\/09\/rights-group-says-massacre-at-iranian-school-likely-by-us-should-be-investigated-as-war-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Rights Group Says Massacre at Iranian School\u2014Likely by US\u2014Should Be Investigated as \u2018War Crime\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A view of the debris of a school, where many students and teachers lost their lives on the first day of the wave of attacks launched by the United States and Israel against Iran, in the southern town of Minab on March 5, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Stringer\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrump loves putting his name on things, but this should be the only building for which he is remembered by history.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jon Queally<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mar 07, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bombing of a primary school by US-Israeli coalition forces in southern Iranian town of Minab that killed an estimated 160 or more civilians\u2014mostly children\u2014on February 28 should be investigated as a possible war crime, Human Rights<\/a> Watch said on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After reviewing satellite footage from before and after the strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school\u2014as well as reviewing video taken in the wake of the bombing and other materials\u2014the international human rights group said the available <\/a>evidence<\/a> indicates \u201cthat the attack was carried out by highly accurate, guided munitions, rather than errant weapons whose guidance or propulsion systems failed or were otherwise disrupted and randomly struck the area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Funeral<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Up There With My Lai\u2019: Investigations Find US Was Likely Behind Iranian School Massacre<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Explosions<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

US, Israel \u2018Going Gaza on Iran\u2019 as Death Toll Tops 500 Amid New Massacres<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The attack on the school would be among the deadliest war crimes<\/a> against civilians by US forces in years. Occurring on the first day of bombings of what President Donald Trump<\/a> and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dubbed Operation Epic Fury, the slaughter of schoolchildren\u2014though the US has denied responsibility thus far\u2014coincides with Hegseth repeatedly bragging that the US military<\/a> would no longer follow \u201cstupid rules of engagement\u201d in the execution of its operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe school was in use, and children<\/a> were in attendance on the day of the attack,\u201d the group said. \u201cHuman Rights Watch found no evidence that would indicate that the school was being used for military purposes, though researchers were not able to speak to witnesses of the strikes, families of those killed, or other informed sources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Trump should hold Secretary Hegseth and everyone else responsible for killing Iranian children accountable, and bring this illegal, unnecessary war of choice to an end.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to HRW:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The United States<\/a> should immediately assess its responsibility for this strike and make the findings public. If the US military carried out the strike, it should conduct a full investigation into the operational and policy failures that led it to strike a school, fully account for the civilian harm caused, hold those responsible accountable including through prosecution, and commit to changes that would ensure such failures will not be repeated in future operations.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Analyses of the bombing by various news outlets have provided strong evidence that US forces were the most likely culprits of the attack. HRW was told by an Israeli military spokesperson that it was \u201cnot aware of any [Israeli military] strikes in the area.\u201d Hegseth said during a Wednesday press conference that the Pentagon<\/a> was investigating the matter, but offered no further indication of concern in the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During that same press briefing, as HRW notes in its analysis of the attack, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, said that US forces from the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group were providing \u201cpressure\u201d in preceding days along the \u201csoutheastern side\u201d of the Iranian coast as he pointed<\/a> to an area of a map showing coalition bombings that included Minab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA prompt and thorough investigation is needed into this attack, including if those responsible should have known that a school was there and that it would be full of children and their teachers before midday,\u201d said Sophia Jones<\/a>, open source researcher with the Digital Investigations Lab<\/a> at Human Rights Watch. \u201cThose responsible for an unlawful attack should be held to account, including prosecutions of anyone responsible for war crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAllies of the US and Israel should insist on accountability for the Shajareh Tayyebeh school attack and for an end to attacks on civilian infrastructure<\/a> in all of their operations across the region, before more civilians, including children, are unlawfully killed,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human Rights Watch is not the only one demanding an independent investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis mass killing of children is unconscionable. It bears the hallmarks of a war crime,\u201d said<\/a> Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on Friday after a New York Times<\/a><\/em> investigation<\/a> found that US forces were likely behind the strike. \u201cTrump and Hegseth must answer for the US\u2019s role and they must be held accountable. People deserve the full truth. There must be an immediate and transparent investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, as Common Dreams<\/em> reported<\/a>, another school in Iran was struck by US-Israel bombings, bringing the total number of schools hit to four in the first six days of the unprovoked military attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe American people do not want their tax dollars spent on killing children in Iran, just as they did not want their tax dollars spent on killing children in Gaza<\/a>,\u201d said the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) in a statement. \u201cThe latest U.S.-Israel attacks on schools in Iran are blatant war crimes. So was the original slaughter of 180 schoolgirls that the Pentagon refuses to take responsibility for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery child murdered or injured in these indiscriminate US-Israel bombing attacks is a sign that the Pentagon under Pete Hegseth is mimicking the tactics of the cowardly and genocidal Israeli military, which has mastered the art of bombing men, women, and children from afar,\u201d the group added. \u201cThe American people expect better from our armed forces. President Trump should hold Secretary Hegseth and everyone else responsible for killing Iranian children accountable, and bring this illegal, unnecessary war of choice to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the war continues and Trump on Saturday said the people of Iran should expect bombing and destruction to increase not decrease over the weekend, voices for peace continued to demand a swift end to the violence and said the US president should forever be held responsible for unleashing such unnecessary bloodshed\u2014including the specific devastation unleashed on the school in Minab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrump loves putting his name on things, but this should be the only building for which he is remembered by history,\u201d\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, referencing the school where the massacre took place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jon Queally<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jon Queally is managing editor of Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A view of the debris of a school, where many students and teachers lost their lives on the first day of the wave of attacks launched by the United States and Israel against Iran, in the southern town of Minab on March 5, 2026. \u00a0(Photo by Stringer\/Anadolu via Getty Images)… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47099"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47100,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47099\/revisions\/47100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}